Method of predicting acute appendicitis

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the invention provide method and devices for predicting the likelihood of acute appendicitis without invasive exploratory medical procedures. Several protein biomarkers: leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8 (calgranulin); α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM); plasminogen (PLG); mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1); Apolipoprotein D (ApoD); and α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3); are increased in the urine of patients with appendicitis. The method and devices comprise detecting the levels of these biomarkers and comparing with reference levels found in healthy individuals.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/963,017 filed on Aug. 9, 2013, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/142,598 filed on Oct. 14, 2011, nowU.S. Pat. No. 8,535,891 issued on Sep. 17, 2013, which is 35 U.S.C. §371U.S. National Entry of International Application No. PCT/US2009/069800filed on Dec. 30, 2009, which claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) ofU.S. Provisional Application No. 61/141,283 filed on Dec. 30, 2008, andU.S. Provisional Application No. 61/185,676 filed on Jun. 10, 2009, thecontents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentireties.

SEQUENCE LISTING

The instant application contains a Sequence Listing which has beensubmitted in ASCII format via EFS-Web and is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety. Said ASCII copy, created on Aug. 8, 2013, isnamed 701039-064449_SequenceListing.txt and is 244,089 bytes in size.

BACKGROUND

Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of theappendix. All cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either bylaparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly becauseof peritonitis and shock.

Appendicitis is among many human diseases, for which the diagnosis iscomplicated by the heterogeneity of its clinical presentation. Patientswith many other disorders can present with symptoms similar to those ofappendicitis. Examples include the following: pelvic inflammatorydisease (PID) or tubo-ovarian abscess, Endometriosis, ovarian cyst ortorsion, ureterolithiasis and renal colic, degenerating uterineleiomyomata, diverticulitis, Crohn's disease, colonic carcinoma, rectussheath hematoma, cholecystitis, bacterial enteritis, mesentericadenitis, and omental torsion. It remains the most common surgicalemergency of children, with initial diagnosis accuracy additionallychallenged because of non-specific but similar symptoms of many otherchildhood conditions. Delays in accurate diagnosis lead to increasedmortality, morbidity, and costs associated with the complications ofappendicitis.

The use of high resolution computed tomography (CT) to identifyappendiceal inflammation was hoped to improve both the diagnosis andtreatment of acute appendicitis. Though variable, these improvementshave been modest at best, with rates of unnecessary appendectomies andruptures of 3-30% and 30-45%, respectively. In addition, availability ofand experience with CT limit the usefulness of this approach.Furthermore, recently its use has been re-evaluated due to concerns ofcancer risk.

Development of non-invasive diagnostics are therefore needed anddesirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to devices, kits and methods todetermine acute appendicitis in a subject, such as a human subject. Inparticular, the inventors have discovered a set of appendicitisbiomarkers which are present in a urine sample obtained from a subjectwith acute appendicitis. As such, one aspect of the present inventionprovides devices, kits and methods to detect the presence of suchappendicitis biomarkers in a urine sample from a subject, such as ahuman subject. In some embodiments, the device is in the format of adipstick test, in particular, a lateral flow immunoassay.

In some embodiments, an appendicitis biomarker is leucine α-2glycoprotein (LRG). In some embodiments, an appendicitis biomarker ismannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2). In some embodiments, anappendicitis biomarker is α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM). In someembodiments, an appendicitis biomarker is selected from the groupsselected from leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8(calgranulin); α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM); plasminogen (PLG);mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein(AZGP1); apolipoprotein D (ApoD); and α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3).In some embodiments, an appendicitis biomarker is selected from at least1, or at least about 2, or at least about 3, or at least about 4, or atleast about 5, or more than 5 of any and all combinations ofappendicitis biomarkers disclosed in Table 1.

One aspect of the present invention relates to a device for detecting atleast one protein biomarker in a urine sample from a subject to identifyif the subject is likely to have acute appendicitis, the devicecomprising: (a) at least one protein-binding agent which specificallybinds to at least one biomarker protein selected from the group of:leucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG), mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2(MASP2), α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM); and (b) at least one solidsupport for the at least one protein binding-agent in (a), wherein theprotein-binding agent is deposited on the solid support. In someembodiments, a protein-binding agent deposited on the solid supportspecifically binds the leucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG) of SEQ ID NO: 1.In another embodiment, a protein-binding agent deposited on the solidsupport specifically binds to the polypeptide of α-1-acid glycoprotein 1(ORM) of SEQ ID NO: 3. In another embodiment, a protein-binding agentdeposited on the solid support specifically binds to the polypeptide ofmannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2) of SEQ ID NO: 5.

In some embodiment, the device is useful for detecting multipleappendicitis biomarkers, for example where the device further comprisesat least one additional different protein-binding agent deposited on thesolid support, wherein the additional protein-binding agent specificallybinds to a biomarker protein selected from the group consisting of:leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8 (calgranulin); α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM); plasminogen (PLG); mannan-binding lectin serineprotease 2 (MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1); Apolipoprotein D(ApoD); and α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3).

In some embodiment, the device is useful for detecting multipleappendicitis biomarkers, for example where the device further comprisesat least one additional different protein-binding agent deposited on thesolid support, wherein the additional protein-binding agent specificallybinds to a biomarker protein selected from the group consisting of:adipocyte specific adhesion molecule; AMBP; amyloid-like protein 2;angiotensin converting enzyme 2; BAZ1B; carbonic anhydrase 1; CD14;chromogranin A; FBLN7; FXR2; hemoglobin α; hemoglobin β; interleukin-1receptor antagonist protein; inter-α-trypsin inhibitor;lipopolysaccharide binding protein; lymphatic vessel endothelialhyaluronan acid receptor 1; MLKL; nicastrin; novel protein (AccessionNo: IPI00550644); PDZK1 interacting protein 1; PRIC285; prostaglandin-H2D-isomerase; Rcl; S100-A9; serum amyloid A protein; SLC13A3; SLC2A1;SLC2A2; SLC4A1; SLC9A3; SORBS1; SPRX2; supervillin; TGFbeta2R; TTYH3;VA0D1; vascular adhesion molecule 1; versican; VIP36; α-1-acidglycoprotein 2; β-1,3-galactosyltransferase, also disclosed in Table 1.

In some embodiments, the solid support of the device is in the format ofa dipstick, a microfluidic chip or a cartridge. In some embodiments, thedipstick is a lateral flaw immunoassay test strip. In some embodiments,a single test strip tests for one appendicitis biomarker, such as LRG orORM or S100-A8. In other embodiments, a single test strip test forseveral appendicitis biomarkers, for example, a single test strip testfor all three appendicitis biomarkers: LRG, ORM and S100-A8; or a singletest strip test for two appendicitis biomarkers: LRG and ORM; LRG andS100-A8; or ORM and S100-A8.

In some embodiments, a protein-binding agent is an antibody, antibodyfragment, aptamer, small molecule or variant or fragment thereof. Insome embodiments, a subject is a mammalian subject such as a humansubject. In some embodiments, a subject with at least one symptom ofappendicitis, as disclosed herein.

In some embodiments, a protein-binding agent deposited on the devicespecifically binds to the specific appendicitis biomarker protein whenthe level of the appendicitis biomarker protein is at least 2-fold abovea reference level for that appendicitis biomarker protein. Typically, areference level for a particular appendicitis biomarker is an averagelevel of the appendicitis biomarker protein in a plurality of urinesamples from a population of healthy humans not having acuteappendicitis.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to the use of a deviceas disclosed herein to identify if a subject has acute appendicitis,wherein if at least one biomarker specifically binds to at least oneprotein-binding agent, the subject is likely to have acute appendicitis.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a kit, where the kitcomprises (a) a device as disclosed herein, and (b) a first agent,wherein the first agent produces a detectable signal in the presence ofa protein-binding agent which deposited on the device is specificallybound to a biomarker protein. In some embodiments, a kit optionallyfurther comprises a second agent, wherein the second agent produces adifferent detectable signal in the presence of a second protein-bindingagent deposited on the device which is specifically bound to a secondbiomarker protein.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method to identifythe likelihood of a subject to have acute appendicitis comprising: (a)measuring the level of at least one appendicitis biomarker proteinselected from the group listed in Table 1 in a urine sample from thehuman subject; (b) comparing the level of the at least one biomarkerprotein measured in step (a) to a reference level for the measuredappendicitis biomarker, where if the level of a measured appendicitisbiomarker is at least 2-fold increased than the reference level for theparticular appendicitis biomarker measured, it identifies that thesubject is likely to have acute appendicitis. In some embodiments, themethod can be used to guide a clinician to direct an appropriate therapyto a subject which is identified to have acute appendicitis.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises determining the levelof albumin in the urine sample from the human subject. In someembodiments, the subject is a human subject and the human subject hasexhibited at least one symptom of acute appendicitis.

In some embodiments, the method comprises measuring an appendicitisbiomarker level by any method known by one of ordinary skill in the art,such as for example with the use of an immunoassay or an automatedimmunoassay, or a dipstick test, as disclosed herein. In someembodiments, the method comprises measuring the level of theappendicitis biomarker leucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG). In someembodiments, the method comprises measuring the level of theappendicitis biomarker α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM). In someembodiments, the method comprises measuring the level of theappendicitis biomarker mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2).

In some embodiments, the method comprises measuring the level of atleast one the appendicitis biomarker selected from a group consisting ofleucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG), calgranulin A (S100-A8), α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM), plasminogen (PLG), mannan-binding lectin serineprotease 2 (MASP2), zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1), α-1-antichymotrypsin(SERPINA3) and apolipoprotein D (ApoD).

In some embodiments, the reference level in the method is a level of theparticular appendicitis biomarker measured in a urine sample of ahealthy human not having acute appendicitis. In some embodiments, thereference level is an average level of the appendicitis biomarker in aplurality of urine samples from a population of healthy humans nothaving acute appendicitis. In some embodiments, the reference level is anormalized level of the appendicitis biomarker in a urine sample of ahealthy human not having acute appendicitis, wherein the normalizationis performed against the level of albumin in the urine sample of ahealthy human not having acute appendicitis.

In some embodiments, the method comprises measuring the level of atleast one the appendicitis biomarker in a urine sample is collected inmid-stream. In some embodiments, the method comprises measuring thelevel of at least one the appendicitis biomarker by depositing the urinesample from the subject on a device, such as a test strip or dipstickdevice, as disclosed herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a representative SDS-PAGE separation of 17,000 g, 210,000 g,and TCA fractions of three urine specimens (1, 2, 3) demonstrating smalldifferences in total protein abundance among different urine specimens,and preferential fractionation of albumin () and uromodulin (

) in the 17,000 g fraction, enabling improved detection of the remainingurinary proteins. The majority of albumin and uromodulin appears tosediment at 17,000 g, demonstrating that they exist in high molecularweight complexes, consistent with uromodulin's ability to polymerize inurine.

FIGS. 2A-2B show representative mass spectra. FIG. 2A is the relativeion intensity as a function of m/z values of precursor ions (MS), withthe doubly charged peptide LDITAEILAVR from plunc labeled by arrow, andFIG. 2B is the fragmentation spectrum with fragment ions labeled as y-and b-series fragment ions (MS/MS).

FIGS. 3A-3B shows the apparent mass accuracy error of the LTQ-Orbitrap.FIG. 3A is a cumulative probability graph of the mass accuracy error,and FIG. 3B is the histogram of the LTQ-Orbitrap mass accuracy error, asassessed by comparison of observed masses of the trypsin autolysispeptide VATVSLPR, as compared to its expected monoisotopic mass,indicating that most peptides have apparent mass errors of less than 2ppm.

FIG. 4 is a venn diagram showing the comparisons of the observedaggregate urine proteome with those published by Adachi et at [13], andPisitkun et at [10], demonstrating high concordance with the previousstudies of human urine, as well as discovery of not previously observedproteins.

FIG. 5 is a histogram showing the variability in the composition ofindividual urine proteomes, as assessed by the coefficients of variationof their proteins' spectral counts, demonstrating a broad distribution,including proteins that are relatively invariant (A: Albumin, cubilin,megalin), and those that appear to vary among individual proteomes (B:α1-anti-trypsin, fibrinogen, α2-macroglobulin).

FIG. 6 is a scatter plot showing the relative enrichment of appendicitisprotein biomarkers as a function of appendicitis tissue overexpressionof the corresponding genes, demonstrating that more than 50% of markerswith tissue overexpression exhibit urine enrichment (□), but that only 3of these (▪) were identified as markers by urine proteome profiling.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing an experimental scheme, outliningmethods used for protein capture and fractionation, of theidentification and discovery of appendicitis biomarkers using urineproteomics, and the validation of appendicitis diagnostic biomarkers.

FIG. 8 is a boxplot showing the relative urine protein abundance(logarithm normalized ion current units) of the validated diagnosticmarkers for the non-appendicitis (open) and appendicitis (hatched)patient groups. Normalized value of 1 corresponds to the apparentabundance of internal reference standard. Boxes contain the 25-75%interquartile range, with the dividing bars representing means, whiskersrepresenting 10-90% range, and crosses representing 1-99% range. Squaresymbols represent medians. Abundance of LRG in patients withpyelonephritis (solid dot, ) and those who underwent appendectomieswith findings of histologically normal appendices (open dot, ◯).

FIGS. 9A-9B show validation of selected appendicitis biomarkers. FIG. 9Ashows receiver operating characteristics of appendicitis proteinbiomarkers from urine validated by target mass spectrometry,demonstrating the relative diagnostic performance of leucine-richα-2-glycoprotein (LRG), calgranulin A (S100-A8), α-1-acid glycoprotein 1(ORM), and apolipoprotein D (ApoD). FIG. 9B shows the enrichment of LRGin a random sample of urine of patients with histologically provenappendicitis (+) as compared to those without (−) by using Westernimmunoblotting. LRG signal was observed in 5/5 patients withappendicitis and no signal was observed in 5/6 patients withoutappendicitis.

FIGS. 10A-10B show clinical validation of selected appendicitisbiomarkers. FIG. 10A is a boxplot showing the relative appendicitisprotein biomarker abundance (normalized ion current units) ofleucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG) (top panel) and calgranulin A(S100-A8) (bottom panel) as a function of appendicitis severity, asassessed using histologic classification. Note that the group withhistologically normal appendices includes both patients who underwentappendectomies and patients without clinical diagnosis of appendicitis.FIG. 10B shows representative micrographs of appendectomy specimens andimmunohistochemistry staining against LRG, demonstrating increased LRGsignal in appendectomy specimens with more severe grade of appendicitis.

FIG. 11A (top view) and 11B (side view) shows the schematic diagrams ofan exemplary lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) dipstick test strip fordetermining that the level of an appendicitis biomarker protein in urineis greater than (or increased as compared to) a predetermined referencelevel.

FIG. 12A-D are schematic diagrams of the top views of exemplary LFIAdipstick test strips shown in FIG. 11, showing the different resultsthat can obtained using the simple test strip shown in FIG. 11.

FIG. 13 shows a schematic diagram of how the levels of three biomarkerproteins can be determined simultaneously using three independent LFIAtest strips, one test strip for a different biomarker protein. Adiagnostic kit can comprise several LFIA test strips, one strip for adifferent biomarker protein.

FIG. 14 shows a schematic diagram of how the levels of three biomarkerproteins are determined simultaneously on the same LFIA test strip. Adiagnostic kit can comprise a single composite or multiplex LFIA teststrip for determining the levels of several biomarker proteinssimultaneously. The single composite test trip has three distinctprotein binding agent specific respectively for three appendicitisbiomarker proteins.

FIG. 15A-D are schematic diagrams of an alternative embodiment of anexemplary LFIA dipstick test strip shown in FIG. 11 for determiningwhether the level of a biomarker protein in a fluid sample is above orbelow a reference/control value for that biomarker and theinterpretation of the results obtained. Two different anti-biomarkerantibodies are used on the test strip.

FIG. 16A (top view) and 16B (side view) shows a schematic diagram of analternative embodiment of a LFIA test strip for determining the level ofa biomarker protein in a fluid sample and comparing the determined levelwith a reference value. S, T, C definition are as in FIG. 11.

FIG. 17A-F are schematic diagrams showing the different results that canobtained using the LFIA test strip shown in FIG. 16.

FIG. 18 shows a schematic diagram of an alternative version on how thelevels of four biomarker proteins can be determined simultaneously usingfour separate LFIA test strips, one test strip for a different biomarkerprotein. A diagnostic kit can comprise multiple LFIA test strips, onestrip for a different biomarker protein.

FIG. 19 shows a schematic diagram of an alternative version how thelevels of three biomarker proteins are determined simultaneously on thesame LFIA test strip. A diagnostic kit can comprise a single compositeLFIA test strip for determining the levels of several biomarkerproteins.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention are based on the discovery of eightbiomarkers whose increase in urinary concentration correlate accuratelywith acute appendicitis. These eight biomarkers are leucine-rich α2-glycoprotein (LRG), calgranulin A (S100-A8), α-1-acid glycoprotein 1(orosomucoid) (ORM), plasminogen (PLG), mannan-binding lectin serineprotease 2 (MASP2), zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1), α-1-antichymotrypsin(SERPINA3) and apolipoprotein D (ApoD). These appendicitis biomarkerproteins have been confirmed by Western immunoblotting (Example 2, FIGS.9 and 10) and further validated by target mass spectrometry (Example 2).

Accordingly, in some embodiments, these biomarkers can be used asindicators of acute appendicitis. By simply measuring the levels ofthese biomarkers in a urine sample from an individual having somesymptoms of acute appendicitis or that is suspected of having acuteappendicitis, a physician can quickly make a diagnosis and administerappropriate medical treatment in a timely manner. When the levels ofthese biomarkers in an individual is greater than the reference level orreference value of the respective biomarkers, at least one order ofmagnitude greater than that found in healthy individual not having acuteappendicitis, it is indicative that the individual is indeed havingacute appendicitis.

In one embodiment, a subject or individual is a mammalian subject, suchas a human.

Non-limiting symptoms of acute appendicitis include pain startingcentrally (periumbilical) before localizing to the right iliac fossa(the lower right side of the abdomen); loss of appetite and fever;nausea or vomiting; the feeling of drowsiness; the feeling of generalbad health; pain beginning and staying in the right iliac fossa,diarrhea and a more prolonged, smoldering course; increased frequency ofurination; marked retching; tenesmus or “downward urge” (the feelingthat a bowel movement will relieve discomfort); positive Rovsing's sign,Psoas sign, and/or Obturator sign.

In one embodiment, the invention provides a kit for predicting acuteappendicitis in a human comprising an indicator or device that isresponsive to a level of at least one biomarker in a sample of urinefrom a human upon contact with the sample of urine, wherein theappendicitis biomarker protein in a sample of urine is selected from agroup consisting of leucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG), calgranulin A(S100-A8), α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM), plasminogen (PLG),mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2), zinc-α-2-glycoprotein(AZGP1), α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3) and apolipoprotein D (ApoD),and wherein the indicator provides a positive test result when theappendicitis biomarker level exceeds a reference value.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a kit or device forpredicting acute appendicitis in a subject, (e.g. a human subject) thatare responsive to at least one marker selected from the list ofappendicitis biomarkers listed in Table 1. In one embodiment, the kit ordevice for predicting acute appendicitis in a subject is responsive toleucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG). In one embodiment, the kit or device forpredicting acute appendicitis in a subject, is responsive to leucine α-2glycoprotein (LRG) and at least one marker selected from α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM), and/or mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2(MASP2). In some embodiments, the kit or device for predicting acuteappendicitis in a subject, is responsive to leucine α-2 glycoprotein(LRG) and at least one marker selected from the group consisting ofcalgranulin A (S100-A8), α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM), plasminogen(PLG), mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2),zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1), α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3) andapolipoprotein D (ApoD). As used herein, the term “responsive” refers tothe ability to detect the level of an appendicitis biomarkers ofinterest in a urine sample.

In another embodiment, the kit or device for predicting acuteappendicitis in a subject, is responsive to leucine α-2 glycoprotein(LRG) and at least 1, or a least 2 or at least 3, or at least 4 or atleast 5, or at least 6, or at least 7, or at least 8, or at least 9, orat least 10 other marker(s), in all and any combination, selected fromthe group consisting of the list of biomarkers listed in Table 1. Inanother embodiment, the kit or device for predicting acute appendicitisin a subject, is responsive to leucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG) and atleast one marker selected from the group consisting of adipocytespecific adhesion molecule; AMBP; amyloid-like protein 2; angiotensinconverting enzyme 2; BAZ1B; carbonic anhydrase 1; CD14; chromogranin A;FBLN7; FXR2; hemoglobin α; hemoglobin β; interleukin-1 receptorantagonist protein; inter-α-trypsin inhibitor; lipopolysaccharidebinding protein; lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan acid receptor1; MLKL; nicastrin; novel protein (Accession No: IPI00550644); PDZK1interacting protein 1; PRIC285; prostaglandin-H2 D-isomerase; Rcl;S100-A9; serum amyloid A protein; SLC13A3; SLC2A1; SLC2A2; SLC4A1;SLC9A3; SORBS1; SPRX2; supervillin; TGFbeta2R; TTYH3; VA0D1; vascularadhesion molecule 1; versican; VIP36; α-1-acid glycoprotein 2; andβ-1,3-galactosyltransferase.

In one embodiment, the indicator is in the form of a test strip such asa dipstick. In one embodiment, the test strip is a lateral flowimmunoassay (LFIA). In one embodiment, the test strip is a doublesandwich LFIA. In another embodiment, test strip is a competitive LFIA.

In one embodiment, the reference value is an average level of theappendicitis biomarker in urine samples from a population of healthyhumans not having acute appendicitis. In some embodiments, healthyhumans not having acute appendicitis do not exhibit any symptomassociated with acute appendicitis as disclosed herein.

In one embodiment, the responsiveness of the indicator of the kit is byway of an immunoassay. In one embodiment, the immunoassay is a lateralflow immunoassay test, also known as the immunochromatographic assay, orstrip test.

In one embodiment, the invention provides a method of predicting acuteappendicitis in a human comprising the steps of: (a) determining thelevel of at least one biomarker protein in a sample of urine from thehuman; and comparing the level of step (a) to a reference value todetermine whether the human is suffering from acute appendicitis.

In one embodiment, the invention further comprises determining the levelof albumin in the sample of urine from the human.

In one embodiment, the sample of urine is collected by the human.

In one embodiment, the human exhibits at least one symptom of acuteappendicitis described herein.

In one embodiment, the human had an inconclusive CT to determineinflammation of the appendix.

In one embodiment, the human did not have a CT to determine inflammationof the appendix.

In one embodiment, the determination of the appendicitis biomarker levelis completed with the use of an immunoassay. In some embodiments, theimmunoassay is a lateral flow immunoassay test, also known as theimmunochromatographic assay, or strip test. In some embodiments, thelateral flow immunoassay is a double antibody sandwich assay, acompetitive assay, a quantitative assay or variations thereof.

In one embodiment, the appendicitis biomarker protein is leucine α-2glycoprotein (LRG). In one embodiment, the appendicitis biomarkerprotein is selected from a group consisting of leucine α-2 glycoprotein(LRG), calgranulin A (S100-A8), α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM),plasminogen (PLG), mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2),zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1), α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3) andapolipoprotein D (ApoD). In another embodiment, the appendicitisbiomarker is selected from the group of biomarkers selected from any ofthose listed in Table 1.

In other embodiments, for the method and kit or devices, variouscombinations of appendicitis biomarkers can be selected. For examples:LRG and S100-8A; LRG and ORM; ORM and S100-A8, LRG and PLG; LRG andMASP2; LRG and AZGP1; LRG and SERPINA3; LRG and ApoD; LRG, MASP2 andORM; ORM and MASP2, LRG, S100-A8 and ORM; LRG, ORM and PLG; LRG, ORM andApoD; LRG, S100-A8, and PLG; LRG, S100-A8, and ApoD; LRG, S100-A8, ORMand SERPINA3; LRG, S100-8A and SERPINA3; LRG, SERPINA3 and AZGP1; LRG,SERPINA3 and Apo D and so forth.

In one embodiment, the method of predicting acute appendicitis in ahuman comprises the step of determining the level of leucine-richα-2-glycoprotein (LRG) in a sample of urine from the human.

In one embodiment, the method of predicting acute appendicitis in ahuman comprises the step of determining the levels of LRG and S100-A8(calgranulin) in a sample of urine from the human.

In one embodiment, the method of predicting acute appendicitis in ahuman comprises the step of determining the levels of LRG and α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM) in a sample of urine from the human.

In one embodiment, the method of predicting acute appendicitis in ahuman comprises the step of determining the levels of LRG andplasminogen (PLG) in a sample of urine from the human.

In one embodiment, the method of predicting acute appendicitis in ahuman comprises the step of determining the levels of LRG andmannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2) in a sample of urinefrom the human.

In one embodiment, the method of predicting acute appendicitis in ahuman comprises the step of determining the levels of LRG andzinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1) in a sample of urine from the human.

In one embodiment, the method of predicting acute appendicitis in ahuman comprises the step of determining the levels of LRG andapolipoprotein D (ApoD) in a sample of urine from the human.

In one embodiment, the method of predicting acute appendicitis in ahuman comprises the step of determining the levels of ORM and S100-A8 ina sample of urine from the human.

In one embodiment, the method of predicting acute appendicitis in ahuman comprises the step of determining the levels of LRG, ORM andS100-A8 in a sample of urine from the human.

In one embodiment, the method of predicting acute appendicitis in ahuman comprises the step of determining the levels of LRG andα-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3) in a sample of urine from the human.

TABLE 1 List of appendicitis biomarkers for use in the kits, devices andmethods as disclosed herein for predicting acute appendicitis in thesubject, for example a human subject. The SEQ ID NO refers to the aminoacid sequence encoding the protein biomarker, and are incorporatedherein by reference. Protein biomarker Accession no SEQ ID Leucine-richα-2-glycoprotein (LRG) IPI00022417 1 S100-A8 (calgranulin) IPI00007047 2α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM) IPI00022429 3 Plasminogen IPI00019580 4Mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2) IPI00306378 5Zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1) IPI00166729 6 Apolipoprotein D (ApoD)IPI00006662 7 α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3) IPI00550991 8 Adipocytespecific adhesion molecule IPI00024929 9 AMBP IPI00022426 10Amyloid-like protein 2 IPI00031030 11 Angiotensin converting enzyme 2IPI00465187 12 BAZ1B IPI00216695 13 Carbonic anhydrase 1 IPI00215983 14CD14 IPI00029260 15 chromogranin A IPI00383975 16 FBLN7 IPI00167710 17FXR2 IPI00016250 18 Hemoglobin α IPI00410714 19 Hemoglobin β IPI0065475520 Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein IPI00000045 21Inter-α-trypsin inhibitor IPI00218192 22 Lipopolysaccharide bindingprotein IPI00032311 23 Lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaruronan acidIPI00290856 24 receptor 1 MLKL IPI00180781 25 Nicastrin IPI00021983 26Novel protein IPI00550644 27 PDZK1 interacting protein 1 IPI00011858 28PRIC285 IPI00249305 29 Prostaglandin-H2 D-isomerase IPI00013179 30 RclIPI00007926 31 S100-A9 IPI00027462 32 Serum amyloid A proteinIPI00552578 33 SLC13A3 IPI00103426 34 SLC2A1 IPI00220194 35 SLC2A2IPI00003905 36 SLC4A1 IPI00022361 37 SLC9A3 IPI00011184 38 SORBS1IPI00002491 39 SPRX2 IPI00004446 40 Supervillin IPI00412650 41 TGFbeta2RIPI00383479 42 TTYH3 IPI00749429 43 VA0D1 IPI00034159 44 Vascularadhesion molecule 1 IPI00018136 45 Versican IPI00009802 46 VIP36IPI00009950 47 α-1-acid glycoprotein 2 IPI00020091 48β-1,3-galactosyltransferase IPI00032034 49

In one embodiment, the reference level or reference value is a level ofa appendicitis biomarker in a urine sample of a healthy human not havingacute appendicitis, or not having been diagnosed with acuteappendicitis. A healthy human is any person who exhibits no symptomwhich commonly known to be associated with acute appendicitis asdescribed herein. In another embodiment, the reference value is anaverage level of the appendicitis biomarker in a plurality of urinesamples from a population of healthy humans not having acuteappendicitis or not having been diagnosed with acute appendicitis. Apopulation of healthy subjects that have not been diagnosed with acuteappendicitis is at least five healthy humans, at least 10 healthyhumans, preferably 20 or more healthy humans. The average urine level ofan appendicitis biomarker can be obtained by taking the sum of the levelof an appendicitis biomarker from a number of humans divided by thenumber of humans.

In one embodiment, the reference level or reference value is anormalized level of the appendicitis biomarker in a urine sample of ahealthy human not having acute appendicitis, wherein the normalizationis performed against the level of albumin in the urine sample of ahealthy human not having acute appendicitis, or not having beendiagnosed with acute appendicitis. The normalized reference value forleucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG), calgranulin A (S100-A8), α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM), plasminogen (PLG), mannan-binding lectin serineprotease 2 (MASP2), Zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1), α-1-antichymotrypsin(SERPINA3) and apolipoprotein D (ApoD) is 0.001. When the normalizedvalue for any of the described biomarker from a human is at least oneorder of magnitude greater that the normalized reference value, i.e.0.01 and greater, this is indicative that the human has acuteappendicitis.

In one embodiment, the urine sample is collected in mid-stream.

In one embodiment, the urine sample is obtained by depositing the urineon to a test strip. In one embodiment, the test strip is a lateral flowimmunoassay test, also known as the immunochromatographic assay. In someembodiments, the lateral flow immunoassay is a double antibody sandwichassay, a competitive assay, a quantitative assay or variations thereof(See FIGS. 11-19).

Appendicitis Biomarker Proteins

As discussed herein, in some embodiments, the present invention provideskits or devices for predicting acute appendicitis in a subject, forexample, a human subject that is responsive to at least one appendicitisbiomarker selected from the list of appendicitis biomarkers listed inTable 1. In one embodiment, the kit or device for predicting acuteappendicitis in a subject is responsive to leucine α-2 glycoprotein(LRG). In one embodiment, the kit or device for predicting acuteappendicitis in a subject, is responsive to leucine α-2 glycoprotein(LRG) and at least one marker selected from α-1-acid glycoprotein 1(ORM), and/or mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2).

LRG:

leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein 1 (LRG) is also known in the art asLRG; HMFT1766; LRG1. The leucine-rich repeat (LRR) family of proteins,including LRG1, has been shown to be involved in protein-proteininteraction, signal transduction, and cell adhesion and development.LRG1 is expressed during granulocyte differentiation.

In some embodiments, LRG can be detected in the methods, kits anddevices using commercially available assay kits, e.g., fromImmuno-Biological Laboratories, Inc., Human LRG Assay Kit, catalognumber 27769. LRG can also be detected using the kits as disclosed inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/627,164 filed Jan. 25, 2007, andprovisional patent application 60/761,808 filed Jan. 25, 2006, which areincorporated herein in their entirety by reference.

Commercial polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies against LRG are alsouseful as protein-binding agents to LRG and are available from a varietyof companies, e.g., but not limited to Assay Designs, SIGMA-ALDRICH andNovus Biologicals.

Antibodies or protein binding agents which recognize and specificallybind the LRG1 protein of SEQ ID NO: 1, the sequence of which isreproduced below, can be readily produced by one of ordinary skill inthe art and are useful for the methods, kits and devices as disclosedherein. SEQ ID NO: 1 is the polypeptide sequence for LRG (Leucine-richalpha-2-glycoprotein) and has the amino acid sequence as follows:

MSSWSRQRPKSPGGIQPHVSRTLFLLLLLAASAWGVTLSPKDCQVFRSDHGSSISCQPPAEIPGYLPADTVHLAVEFFNLTHLPANLLQGASKLQELHLSSNGLESLSPEFLRPVPQLRVLDLTRNALTGLPPGLFQASATLDTLVLKENQLEVLEVSWLHGLKALGHLDLSGNRLRKLPPGLLANFTLLRTLDLGENQLETLPPDLLRGPLQLERLHLEGNKLQVLGKDLLLPQPDLRYLFLNGNKLARVAAGAFQGLRQLDMLDLSNNSLASVPEGLWASLGQPNWDMRDGFDISGNPWICDQNLSDLYRWLQAQKDKMFSQNDTRCAGPEAVKGQTLLAV AKSQ

S100A8:

S100A8 is also known in the art as synonyms 60B8AG; CAGA; CFAG; CGLA;CP-10; L1Ag; MA387; MIF; Migration inhibitory factor-related protein 8(MRP8); NIF; OTTHUMP00000015329; OTTHUMP00000015330; P8; S100calcium-binding protein A8; S100 calcium-binding protein A8 (calgranulinA); S100A8; calgranulin A; cystic fibrosis antigen.

Without wishing to be bound by theory, S100 calcium binding protein A8(S100 A8), also known as migration inhibitory factor-related protein(MRP-8) belongs to the S-100 family of calcium binding proteinsassociated with myeloid cell differentiation. They are highly expressedin resting neutrophils, keratinocytes (particularly in psoriasis), ininfiltrating tissue macrophages and on epithelial cells in activeinflammatory disease. The heterogeneity of macrophage subpopulations inchronic or acute inflammation is reflected by different expression ofMRP8 and migration inhibitory factor-related proteins-14 (MRP14).Phagocytes expressing MRP8 and MRP14 belong to the early infiltratingcells, while MRP8 alone is found in chronic inflammatory tissues. Thepartially antagonistic functions of MRP8, MRP14 and of theCa²⁺-dependent MRP8/14 heterocomplex makes them versatile mediators.

Human S100A8 (MRP8) has a molecular weight of 11.0 kD, while human MRP14exists in a 13.3 kD and a truncated 12.9 kD form. Ca2⁺ induces theformation of heterocomplexes of the form (MRP8)(MRP14) (abbreviatedMRP8/14), (MRP8)2(MRP14), and (MRP8/14)2. There are two EF-hand motifseach on MRP8 and MRP14. MRP14 shows a higher affinity for calcium thanMRP8, and the affinity of the C terminal EF2 is higher than that of theN-terminal EF1. The C-terminal domain also mainly determines thespecificity of dimerization. The helix in EF2 undergoes a largeconformational change upon calcium binding and may play a role as atrigger for Ca²⁺ induced conformational change.

In some embodiments, S100A8 can be detected in the methods, kits anddevices using commercial assays, such as, but without limitation, S100A8assay kits from R & D Systems's Human MIF QUANTIKINE® ELISA Kit•Catalognumber: DMF00; and BMA Biomedicals, MRP8 Enzyme Immunoassay ProductCode: S-1007. S100A8 can also be detected using the kits as disclosed inU.S. Pat. No. 7,501,256 and WO/2006/012588 which is incorporated hereinin its entirety by reference.

In some embodiments, commercial polyclonal and monoclonal antibodiesagainst S100A8 are also useful as protein-binding agents to S100A8 andare available from a variety of companies, e.g., but not limited tocommercial polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies against S100A8 areavailable from a variety of companies, e.g. Assay Designs,SIGMA-ALDRICH, R & D Systems, Novus Biologicals and Santa CruzBiotechnology.

Antibodies or protein binding agents which recognize and specificallybind the S100 A8 protein of SEQ ID NO: 2, the sequence of which isreproduced below, can be readily produced by one of ordinary skill inthe art and are useful for the methods, kits and devices as disclosedherein.

SEQ ID NO: 2 is the polypeptide sequence for S100 A8 and has the aminoacid sequence as follows:

MLTELEKALNSIIDVYHKYSLIKGNFHAVYRDDLKKLLETECPQYIRKKGADVWFKELDINTDGAVNFQEFLILVIKMGVAAHKKSHEESHKE

ORM:

alpha-1-acid-glycoprotein 1 (ORM) is also known in the art asorosomucoid 1, AGP1; AGP-A; ORM1. This gene encodes a key acute phaseplasma protein. Because of its increase due to acute inflammation, thisprotein is classified as an acute-phase reactant. The specific functionof this protein has not yet been determined; however, it may be involvedin aspects of immunosuppression.

In some embodiments, ORM can be detected in the methods, kits anddevices using commercial assays, such as, but without limitation, HumanOrosomucoid ELISA Quantitation Kit from GenWay Biotech, Inc. catalog No.40-288-22927F.

In some embodiments, commercial polyclonal and monoclonal antibodiesagainst ORM are also useful as protein-binding agents to ORM and areavailable from a variety of companies, e.g., but not limited to AssayDesigns, SIGMA-ALDRICH, Novus Biologicals, Lifespan Biosciences, R & DSystems, and Santa Cruz Biotechnology

Antibodies or protein binding agents which recognize and specificallybind the ORM protein of SEQ ID NO: 3, the sequence of which isreproduced below, can be readily produced by one of ordinary skill inthe art and are useful for the methods, kits and devices as disclosedherein. SEQ ID NO: 3 is the polypeptide sequence for ORM and has theamino acid sequence as follows:

MALSWVLTVLSLLPLLEAQIPLCANLVPVPITNATLDQITGKWFYIASAFRNEEYNKSVQEIQATFFYFTPNKTEDTIFLREYQTRQDQCIYNTTYLNVQRENGTISRYVGGQEHFAHLLILRDTKTYMLAFDVNDEKNWGLSVYADKPETTKEQLGEFYEALDCLRIPKSDVVYTDWKKDKCEPLEKQHEKERKQ EEGES

Plasminogen (PLG):

Plasminogen, is also known in the art as PLG or DKFZp779M0222 and is acirculating zymogen that is converted to the active enzyme plasmin bycleavage of the peptide bond between arg560 and val561, which ismediated by urokinase (PLAU; MIM 191840) and tissue plasminogenactivator (PLAT; MIM 173370). The main function of plasmin is todissolve fibrin (see, e.g., FGA, MIM 134820) clots. Plasmin, liketrypsin, belongs to the family of serine proteinases.

In some embodiments, PLG can be detected in the methods, kits anddevices using commercial assays, such as, but without limitation,commercial assay kits from Human Plasminogen ELISA Kit from AlpcoDiagnostics 41-PLAHU-E01; Human Plasminogen ELISA Kit from AMERICANDIAGNOSTICA, 640; Plasminogen Colorimetric Assay Kit from AMERICANDIAGNOSTICA, 851; Human Plasminogen total antigen ELISA Assay Kit fromInnovative Research, IHPLGKT-TOT. PLG can also be detected using thekits as disclosed in International Patent Application WO/1991/005257 andEuropean Patent Application EP1990914430 which is incorporated herein inits entirety by reference.

In some embodiments, commercial polyclonal and monoclonal antibodiesagainst PLG are also useful as protein-binding agents to PLG and areavailable from a variety of companies, e.g., but not limited toRockland, Abcam, Assay Designs, EMD Biosciences, SIGMA-ALDRICH, NovusBiologicals, Lifespan Biosciences, R & D Systems, and Santa CruzBiotechnology.

Antibodies or protein binding agents which recognize and specificallybind the PLG protein of SEQ ID NO: 4, the sequence of which isreproduced below, can be readily produced by one of ordinary skill inthe art and are useful for the methods, kits and devices as disclosedherein. SEQ ID NO: 4 is the polypeptide sequence for PLG and has theamino acid sequence as follows:

MEHKEVVLLLLLFLKSGQGEPLDDYVNTQGASLFSVTKKQLGAGSIEECAAKCEEDEEFTCRAFQYHSKEQQCVIMAENRKSSIIIRMRDVVLFEKKVYLSECKTGNGKNYRGTMSKTKNGITCQKWSSTSPHRPRFSPATHPSEGLEENYCRNPDNDPQGPWCYTTDPEKRYDYCDILECEEECMHCSGENYDGKISKTMSGLECQAWDSQSPHAHGYIPSKFPNKNLKKNYCRNPDRELRPWCFTTDPNKRWELCDIPRCTTPPPSSGPTYQCLKGTGENYRGNVAVTVSGHTCQHWSAQTPHTHNRTPENFPCKNLDENYCRNPDGKRAPWCHTTNSQVRWEYCKIPSCDSSPVSTEQLAPTAPPELTPVVQDCYHGDGQSYRGTSSTTTTGKKCQSWSSMTPHRHQKTPENYPNAGLTMNYCRNPDADKGPWCFTTDPSVRWEYCNLKKCSGTEASVVAPPPVVLLPDVETPSEEDCMFGNGKGYRGKRATTVTGTPCQDWAAQEPHRHSIFTPETNPRAGLEKNYCRNPDGDVGGPWCYTTNPRKLYDYCDVPQCAAPSFDCGKPQVEPKKCPGRVVGGCVAHPHSWPWQVSLRTRFGMHFCGGTLISPEWVLTAAHCLEKSPRPSSYKVILGAHQEVNLEPHVQEIEVSRLFLEPTRKDIALLKLSSPAVITDKVIPACLPSPNYVVADRTECFITGWGETQGTFGAGLLKEAQLPVIENKVCNRYEFLNGRVQSTELCAGHLAGGTDSCQGDSGGPLVCFEKDKYILQGVTSWGLGCARPNKPGVYVRVSRFVTWIEGVMRNN

MASP2:

mannan-binding lectin serine peptidase 2 (MASP2) is also known in theart as aliases sMAP; MAP19; MASP-2; MASP2 and is a Ra-reactive factor(RARF) which is a complement-dependent bactericidal factor that binds tothe Ra and R2 polysaccharides expressed by certain enterobacteria.Alternate splicing of this gene results in two transcript variantsencoding two RARF components that are involved in the mannan-bindinglectin pathway of complement activation. The longer isoform is cleavedinto two chains which form a heterodimer linked by a disulfide bond. Theencoded proteins are members of the trypsin family of peptidases.

In some embodiments, MASP2 can be detected in the methods, kits anddevices using commercial assays, such as, but without limitation,commercial assay kits such as Human MASP-2 ELISA Kit from Cell Sciences,HK326. MASP2 can also be detected using the kits as disclosed inInternational Patent Application WO/2007/028795 which is incorporatedherein in its entirety by reference.

In some embodiments, commercial polyclonal and monoclonal antibodiesagainst MASP2 are also useful as protein-binding agents to MASP2 and areavailable from a variety of companies, e.g., but not limited to CellSciences, USBIO, and Santa Cruz Biotechnology.

Antibodies or protein binding agents which recognize and specificallybind the MASP2 protein of SEQ ID NO: 5, the sequence of which isreproduced below, can be readily produced by one of ordinary skill inthe art and are useful for the methods, kits and devices as disclosedherein.

SEQ ID NO: 5 is the polypeptide sequence for MASP5 and has the aminoacid sequence as follows:

MRLLTLLGLLCGSVATPLGPKWPEPVFGRLASPGFPGEYANDQERRWTLTAPPGYRLRLYFTHFDLELSHLCEYDFVKLSSGAKVLATLCGQESTDTERAPGKDTFYSLGSSLDITFRSDYSNEKPFTGFEAFYAAEDIDECQVAPGEAPTCDHHCHNHLGGFYCSCRAGYVLHRNKRTCSEQSL

AZGP1:

alpha-2-glycoprotein 1 (AZGP1) is also known in the art as aliaseszinc-alpha-2-glycoprotein (ZAG); ZA2G; AZGP1, Azgp1, ZNGP1 andlipid-Mobilizing Factor (LMF). AZGP1 is a soluble 41 kDa glycoproteinbelonging to the immunoglobuline protein family and consisting of asingle polypeptide chain. Human ZAG shares 59% sequence identity withthe murine homolog. AZGP1 is closely related to antigens of the class1major histocompatibility complex (MHC I) and shares 30-40% sequenceidentity with the heavy chain of MHC I. Most MHC-I membersheterodimerize with beta-2-microglobuline (b2m) and bind peptidesderived from intracellular proteins to present them to cytotoxic Tcells. In contrast, AZGP1 is a soluble protein rather than beinganchored to plasma membranes that acts independently on b2m and bindsthe hydrophobic ligand which may relate to its function in lipidmetabolism.

AZGP1 is widespread in body fluids and is also found in various humantissues such as adipose tissue, prostate, breast, skin, salivary gland,trachea, broncheus, lung, gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, liver andkidney. AZGP1 acts as a lipid mobilizing factor to induce lipolysis inadipocytes and plays an important role in lipid utilization and loss ofadipose tissue, especially during cachexia, which occurs in patientsuffering from cancer, AIDS and other chronic illnesses. The role ofAZGP1 in cancer cachexia is also connected with its ability to directlyinfluence expression of uncoupling proteins (UCPs) which are implicatedin the regulation of energy balance. In human adipocytes, AZGP1expression is regulated particularly through TNF-alpha and the PPARgamma nuclear receptor. AZGP1 expression is also upregulated byglucocorticoides and attenuated by eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) andbeta-3-adrenoreceptor antagonists.

AZGP1 is overexpressed in certain human malignant tumors such asprostate, breast, lung or bladder cancer and can relate to tumordifferentiation. Additionally, AZGP1 plays a role in obesity, diabetickidney disorders, frontotemporal dementia and regulation of melaninproduction by melanocytes. AZGP1 is proposed to have a therapeutic usein obesity and cachexia. It can be used as a marker for clinicalanalysis of diabetic nephropathy and as a marker for certain tumors.

In some embodiments, AZGP1 can be detected in the methods, kits anddevices using commercial assays, such as, but without limitation, HumanZinc-Alpha-2-Glycoprotein (ZA2G, ZAG) ELISA Kit, HRP Detection, fromBioVendor Laboratory Medicine, Inc., RD191093100R, The assay is intendedfor the determination of human Zinc-alpha-2-glycoprotein in serum,plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, urine and cell lysate.; Human/Mouse/Rat ZAGEIA Kit from Raybiotech, Inc or Biovendor lab medicine Inc., EIA-ZAG-1.

In some embodiments, commercial polyclonal and monoclonal antibodiesagainst AZGP1 are also useful as protein-binding agents to AZGP1 and areavailable from a variety of companies, e.g., but not limited to Abcam(Zinc Alpha 2 Glycoprotein antibody, catalog #ab47116) and NovusBiologicals (AZGP1 Antibody, catalog #H00000563-B01). Cell Sciences,USBIO, and Santa Cruz Biotechnology.

Antibodies or protein binding agents which recognize and specificallybind the AZGP1 protein of SEQ ID NO: 6, the sequence of which isreproduced below, can be readily produced by one of ordinary skill inthe art and are useful for the methods, kits and devices as disclosedherein.

SEQ ID NO: 6 is the polypeptide sequence for AZGP1 and has the aminoacid sequence as follows:

MVRMVPVLLSLLLLLGPAVPQENQDGRYSLTYIYTGLSKHVEDVPAFQALGSLNDLQFFRYNSKDRKSQPMGLWRQVEGMEDWKQDSQLQKAREDIFMETLKDIVEYYNDSNGSHVLQGRFGCEIENNRSSGAFWKYYYDGKDYIEFNKEIPAWVPFDPAAQITKQKWEAEPVYVQRAKAYLEEECPATLRKYLKYSKNILDRQDPPSVVVTSHQAPGEKKKLKCLAYDFYPGKIDVHWTRAGEVQEPELRGDVLHNGNGTYQSWVVVAVPPQDTAPYSCHVQHSSLAQPLVVP WEAS

APOD: Apolipoprotein D (ApoD or APOD) is a polypeptide which is a highdensity lipoprotein that has no marked similarity to otherapolipoprotein sequences. It has a high degree of homology to plasmaretinol-binding protein and other members of the alpha 2 microglobulinprotein superfamily of carrier proteins, also known as lipocalins. Thisglycoprotein is closely associated with the enzyme lecithin:cholesterolacyltransferase—an enzyme involved in lipoprotein metabolism.

In some embodiments, ApoD can be detected in the methods, kits anddevices using as disclosed in International Patent ApplicationWO/1996/019500 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,368 or 5,804,368 or EuropeanPatent EP0301667 which are incorporated herein in their entirety byreference.

Antibodies or protein binding agents which recognize and specificallybind the ApoD protein of SEQ ID NO: 7, the sequence of which isreproduced below, can be readily produced by one of ordinary skill inthe art and are useful for the methods, kits and devices as disclosedherein.

SEQ ID NO: 7 is the polypeptide sequence for ApoD and has the amino acidsequence as follows:

MVMLLLLLSALAGLFGAAEGQAFHLGKCPNPPVQENFDVNKYLGRWYEIEKIPTTFENGRCIQANYSLMENGKIKVLNQELRADGTVNQIEGEATPVNLTEPAKLEVKFSWFMPSAPYWILATDYENYALVYSCTCIIQLFHVDFAWILARNPNLPPETVDSLKNILTSNNIDVKKMTVTDQVNCPKLS

SERPINA3: α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3) is also known in the art asaliases serpin peptidase inhibitor, Glade A (alpha-1 antiproteinase,antitrypsin), member 3, ACT; AACT; GIG24; GIG25 and MGC88254. TheSERPINA3 polypeptide is a plasma protease inhibitor and member of theserine protease inhibitor class. Polymorphisms in this protein appear tobe tissue specific and influence protease targeting. Variations in thisprotein's sequence have been implicated in Alzheimer's disease, anddeficiency of this protein has been associated with liver disease.Mutations have been identified in patients with Parkinson disease andchronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In some embodiments, SERPINA3 can be detected in the methods, kits anddevices using as disclosed in International Patent ApplicationWO/2005/039588 which is incorporated herein in its entirety byreference.

In some embodiments, commercial polyclonal and monoclonal antibodiesagainst SERPINA3 are also useful as protein-binding agents to SERPINA3and are available from a variety of companies, e.g., but not limited toProteintech Group, Lifespan Biosciences, and Santa Cruz Biotechnology.

Antibodies or protein binding agents which recognize and specificallybind the SERPINA3 protein of SEQ ID NO: 8, the sequence of which isreproduced below, can be readily produced by one of ordinary skill inthe art and are useful for the methods, kits and devices as disclosedherein.

SEQ ID NO: 8 is the polypeptide sequence for SERPINA3 and has the aminoacid sequence as follows:

MKIHYSRQTALESTSYIQLPEAELRMERMLPLLALGLLAAGFCPAVLCHPNSPLDEENLTQENQDRGTHVDLGLASANVDFAFSLYKQLVLKAPDKNVIFSPLSISTALAFLSLGAHNTTLTEILKGLKFNLTETSEAEIHQSFQHLLRTLNQSSDELQLSMGNAMFVKEQLSLLDRFTEDAKRLYGSEAFATDFQDSAAAKKLINDYVKNGTRGKITDLIKDLDSQTMMVLVNYIFFKAKWEMPFDPQDTHQSRFYLSKKKWVMVPMMSLHHLTIPYFRDEELSCTVVELKYTGNASALFILPDQDKMEEVEAMLLPETLKRWRDSLEFREIGELYLPKFSISRDYNLNDILLQLGIEEAFTSKADLSGITGARNLAVSQVVHKAVLDVFEEGTEASAATAVKITLLSALVETRTIVRFNRPFLMIIVPTD TQNIFFMSKVTNPKQA

Measuring Levels of Appendicitis Biomarker Proteins

In embodiments of the invention, the level of appendicitis biomarkerproteins, such as those disclosed in Table 1, and in particular, thefollowing appendicitis biomarker: leucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG),calgranulin A (S100-A8), α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM), plasminogen(PLG), mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2),zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1), α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3) orapolipoprotein D (ApoD), is measured to obtain a determination ofwhether a human patient has acute appendicitis. A urinary biomarkerprotein level can be measured using any assay known to those of ordinaryskilled in the art, including, but not limited to, Enzyme-LinkedImmunosorbent Assay (ELISA), immunoprecipitation assays,radioimmunoassay, mass spectrometry, Western Blotting, and via dipsticksusing conventional technology.

For purposes of comparison, the levels of an appendicitis biomarkerprotein in a urine sample from the patient should be measured in thesame manner as the reference value is measured. For example, the levelsof appendicitis biomarker proteins can be represented in arbitrary unitsdependent upon the assay used to measure the levels of appendicitisbiomarker proteins, e.g., the intensity of the signal from thedetectable label can correspond to the amount of appendicitis biomarkerproteins present (e.g. as determined by eye, densitometry, an ELISAplate reader, a luminometer, or a scintillation counter).

The levels of an appendicitis biomarker protein present in a urinesample can be determined using any protein-binding agent. In someembodiments, a protein-binding agent is a ligand that specifically bindsto an appendicitis biomarker protein, and can be for example, asynthetic peptide, chemical, small molecule, or antibody or antibodyfragment or variants thereof. In some embodiments, a protein-bindingagent is a ligand or antibody or antibody fragment, and in someembodiments, a protein-binding agent is preferably detectably labeled.

In one embodiment of the invention, immunoassays using antibodies areused to measure the levels of biomarker proteins in urine. As usedherein, the term “antibody” is intended to include immunoglobulinmolecules and immunologically active determinants of immunoglobulinmolecules, e.g., molecules that contain an antigen binding site whichspecifically binds (immunoreacts with) to the appendicitis biomarker tobe measured. The term “antibody” is intended to include wholeantibodies, e.g., of any isotype (IgG, IgA, IgM, IgE, etc), and includesfragments thereof which are also specifically reactive with theappendicitis biomarker proteins to be measured, e.g. leucine α-2glycoprotein (LRG), calgranulin A (S100-A8), α-1-acid glycoprotein 1(ORM), plasminogen (PLG), mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2(MASP2), zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1), α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3)or apolipoprotein D (ApoD). Antibodies can be fragmented usingconventional techniques. Thus, the term “antibody” includes segments ofproteolytically-cleaved or recombinantly-prepared portions of anantibody molecule that are capable of selectively reacting with acertain protein. Non limiting examples of such proteolytic and/orrecombinant fragments include Fab, F(ab′)2, Fab′, Fv, dAbs and singlechain antibodies (scFv) containing a VL and VH domain joined by apeptide linker. The scFv's can be covalently or non-covalently linked toform antibodies having two or more binding sites. Thus, “antibody”includes polyclonal, monoclonal, or other purified preparations ofantibodies and recombinant antibodies. The term “antibody” is furtherintended to include humanized antibodies, bispecific antibodies, andchimeric molecules having at least one antigen binding determinantderived from an antibody molecule. In one embodiment, the antibody isdetectably labeled.

Antibodies to the appendicitis biomarker proteins can be generated usingmethods known to those skilled in the art. Alternatively, commerciallyavailable antibodies can be used. Antibodies to LRG, S100-A8, ORM1, PLG,MASP2, AZGP1, ApoD and SERPINA3 are commercially available.

As used herein “detectably labeled”, includes antibodies that arelabeled by a measurable means and include, but are not limited to,antibodies that are enzymatically, radioactively, fluorescently, andchemiluminescently labeled. Antibodies can also be labeled with adetectable tag, such as c-Myc, HA, VSV-G, HSV, FLAG, V5, HIS, or biotin.

In the diagnostic methods of the invention that use an antibody for thedetection of biomarker proteins levels, the level of biomarker proteinspresent in the urine samples correlates to the intensity of the signalemitted from the detectably labeled antibody.

In one embodiment, the antibody is detectably labeled by linking theantibody to an enzyme. The enzyme, in turn, when exposed to it'ssubstrate, will react with the substrate in such a manner as to producea chemical moiety which can be detected, for example, byspectrophotometric, fluorometric, or by visual means. Enzymes which canbe used to detectably label the antibodies of the present inventioninclude, but are not limited to, malate dehydrogenase, staphylococcalnuclease, delta-V-steroid isomerase, yeast alcohol dehydrogenase,alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase, triose phosphate isomerase,horseradish peroxidase, alkaline phosphatase, asparaginase, glucoseoxidase, beta-galactosidase, ribonuclease, urease, catalase,glucose-VI-phosphate dehydrogenase, glucoamylase andacetylcholinesterase. Chemiluminescence is another method that can beused to detect an antibody.

Detection can also be accomplished using any of a variety of otherimmunoassays. For example, by radioactively labeling an antibody, it ispossible to detect the antibody through the use of radioimmune assays.The radioactive isotope can be detected by such means as the use of agamma counter or a scintillation counter or by audoradiography. Isotopeswhich are particularly useful for the purpose of the present inventionare ³H, ¹³¹I, ³⁵S, ¹⁴C, and preferably ¹²⁵I.

It is also possible to label an antibody with a fluorescent compound.When the fluorescently labeled antibody is exposed to light of theproper wave length, its presence can then be detected due tofluorescence. Among the most commonly used fluorescent labelingcompounds are CYE dyes, fluorescein isothiocyanate, rhodamine,phycoerytherin, phycocyanin, allophycocyanin, o-phthaldehyde andfluorescamine.

An antibody can also be detectably labeled using fluorescence emittingmetals such as ¹⁵²Eu, or others of the lanthanide series. These metalscan be attached to the antibody using such metal chelating groups asdiethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) or ethylenediaminetetraaceticacid (EDTA).

An antibody also can be detectably labeled by coupling it to achemiluminescent compound. The presence of the chemiluminescent-antibodyis then determined by detecting the presence of luminescence that arisesduring the course of a chemical reaction. Examples of particularlyuseful chemiluminescent labeling compounds are luminol, luciferin,isoluminol, theromatic acridinium ester, imidazole, acridinium salt andoxalate ester.

In one embodiment, the levels of biomarker proteins in urine aredetected by an immunoassay. Immunoassays include but are not limited toenzyme immunoassay (EIA), also called enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay(ELISA), radioimmunoassay (RIA), diffusion immunoassay (DIA),fluoroimmunoassay (FIA), chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA), countingimmunoassay (CIA), lateral flow tests or immunoassay (LFIA), also knownas lateral flow immunochromatographic assays, and magnetic immunoassay(MIA).

An immunoassay is a biochemical test that measures the concentration ofa substance in a biological sample, typically serum or urine, using thereaction of an antibody or antibodies to its antigen. The assay takesadvantage of the specific binding of an antibody to its antigen.Monoclonal antibodies are often used as they only usually bind to onesite of a particular molecule, and therefore provide a more specific andaccurate test, which is less easily confused by the presence of othermolecules. The antibodies picked must have a high affinity for theantigen (if there is antigen available, a very high proportion of itmust bind to the antibody).

For numerical results, the response of the biological sample beingmeasured must be compared to standards of a known concentration. This isusually done through the plotting of a standard curve on a graph, theposition of the curve at response of the unknown is then examined, andso the quantity of the unknown found. Alternatively, a defined amount ofantibody is used in the assay where the defined amount of antibody bindscompletely to a fixed amount of antigen. This fixed amount of antigen isthe reference level of biomarker in the urine. Thus, this defined amountof antibody is used to indicate whether the amount of antigen in thebiological sample is at least at, below or above the reference level ofbiomarker (See FIGS. 11-12).

Detecting the quantity of antigen in the biological sample can beachieved by a variety of methods. One of the most common is to labeleither the antigen or the antibody. The label can consist of an enzyme(see enzyme immunoassay (EIA)), colloidal gold (lateral flow assays),radioisotopes such as I-¹²⁵ Radioimmunoassay (RIA), magnetic labels(magnetic immunoassay—MIA) or fluorescence. Other techniques includeagglutination, nephelometry, turbidimetry and Western Blot.

In one embodiment, the immunoassay is a competitive immunoassay. Inanother embodiment, the immunoassay is a noncompetitive immunoassay.

Immunoassays can be divided into those that involve labeled reagents andthose which involve non-labeled reagents. Those which involve labeledreagents are divided into homogenous and heterogeneous (which require anextra step to remove unbound antibody or antigen from the site, usuallyusing a solid phase reagent) immunoassays. Heterogeneous immunoassayscan be competitive or non-competitive.

In a competitive immunoassay, the antigen in the unknown sample competeswith labeled antigen to bind with antibodies. The amount of labeledantigen bound to the antibody site is then measured. In this method, theresponse will be inversely proportional to the concentration of antigenin the unknown. This is because the greater the response, the lessantigen in the unknown was available to compete with the labeledantigen.

In noncompetitive immunoassays, also referred to as the “sandwichassay,” antigen in the unknown, e.g. urine sample, is bound to a firstantibody site, then second antibody that is labeled is bound to theantigen, forming a sandwich. The amount of labeled antibody on the siteis then measured. Unlike the competitive method, the results of thenoncompetitive method will be directly proportional to the concentrationof the antigen. This is because labeled antibody will not bind if theantigen is not present in the unknown sample, e.g urine sample.

In one embodiment, the levels of biomarker proteins in urine aredetected by ELISA assay. There are different forms of ELISA which arewell known to those skilled in the art, e.g. standard ELISA, competitiveELISA, and sandwich ELISA. The standard techniques for ELISA aredescribed in “Methods in Immunodiagnosis”, 2nd Edition, Rose andBigazzi, eds. John Wiley & Sons, 1980; Campbell et al., “Methods andImmunology”, W. A. Benjamin, Inc., 1964; and Oellerich, M. 1984, J.Clin. Chem. Clin. Biochem., 22:895-904.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, also called ELISA, enzyme immunoAssayor EIA, is a biochemical technique used mainly in immunology to detectthe presence of an antibody or an antigen in a sample. The ELISA hasbeen used as a diagnostic tool in medicine and plant pathology, as wellas a quality control check in various industries. For the methodsdescribed herein, in the ELISA a known amount of anti-biomarker antibodyis affixed to a solid surface, and then the sample, e.g. urine,containing the biomarker of interest is washed over the surface so thatthe antigen biomarker can bind to the immobilized antibodies (a firstantibody). The surface is washed to remove any unbound biomarker andalso any non-biomarker proteins present in the urine sample. A detectionantibody (a second antibody) is applied to the surface. The detectionantibody is specific to antibodies from the subject. For example, if thesubject is a human, the detection antibody should be an anti-human IgGantibody. If the subject is a dog, the detection antibody then should ananti-dog IgG antibody. This detection antibody can be linked to anenzyme, and in the final step a substance is added that the enzyme canconvert to some detectable signal. For example, in the case offluorescence ELISA, when light is shone upon the sample, anyantigen/antibody complexes will fluoresce so that the amount ofantibodies in the sample can be measured.

The following is a general standard protocol for setting up andperforming an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Using 96-wellmicrotiter plates (Falcon Pro-Bindassay plate 3915; Becton Dickinson,Paramus, N.J.), test wells are coated with anti-biomarker antibody byincubation with 100 μl of purified anti-LRG antibody (31 g/ml in PBS)per well overnight at room temperature, with PBS substituted for theantibody in control wells. After the plates have been washed three timeswith PBS-Tween, 250 μl of 2% BSA in PBS is added to each well, and theplates are incubated for 1 h at room temperature. The plates are washedthree times with PBS-Tween and incubated for 1 h at room temperaturewith test urine sample and control urine sample from healthy individualsdiluted 1:100 in PBS-Tween-BSA; each urine sample is tested intriplicate in anti-LRG antibody-coated wells as well as in PBS controlwells. The plate is then assayed (with appropriate controls) for thepresence and/or the level of LRG by incubation for 1 h at roomtemperature with 100 μl of goat anti-LRG IgG conjugated with horseradishperoxidase (Bio-Rad, Richmond, Calif.) per well diluted 1:2,000 inPBS-Tween-BSA. After three washes in PBS-Tween, the substrate solution(o-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride; Sigma) is added to each well. Theplates are then incubated for 30 min at room temperature in darkness,and the reaction is terminated by the addition of 2N sulfuric acid. Theoptical density values at 490 nm (OD490) are measured in a micro plateELISA reader. For each urine sample, mean OD490 readings are calculatedfor the test wells and for the antigen control wells, the latter beingsubtracted from the former to obtain the net ELISA value.

Performing an ELISA involves at least one antibody with specificity fora particular biomarker. A known amount of anti-biomarker antibody isimmobilized on a solid support (usually a polystyrene micro titer plate)either non-specifically (via adsorption to the surface) or specifically(via capture by another antibody specific to the anti-biomarkerantibody, in a “sandwich” ELISA). After the antigen is immobilized, thedetection antibody is added, forming a complex with the antigen. Thedetection antibody can be covalently linked to an enzyme, or can itselfbe detected by a secondary antibody which is linked to an enzyme throughbio-conjugation. Between each step the plate is typically washed with amild detergent solution to remove any proteins or antibodies that arenot specifically bound. After the final wash step the plate is developedby adding an enzymatic substrate to produce a visible signal, whichindicates the quantity of antigen in the sample. Older ELISAs utilizechromogenic substrates, though newer assays employ fluorogenicsubstrates with much higher sensitivity.

In another embodiment, a competitive ELISA is used. Purifiedanti-biomarker antibody is coated on the solid phase of multi-wells.Urine sample, a defined amount of purified biomarker and horseradishperoxidase labeled with anti-biomarker antibody (secondary detectionconjugated antibody) are added to coated wells to form competitivecombination. After incubation, if the biomarker level in the urinesample is high, a complex of biomarker-anti-biomarkerantibody-anti-biomarker antibody labeled with HRP will form. Washing thewells will remove the complex. Incubation with TMB(3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidene) will result in color developmentsubstrate for the localization of horseradish peroxidase-conjugatedantibodies in the wells. There will be no color change or little colorchange. If the biomarker level in the urine sample is low, there will bemuch color change. Such a competitive ELSA test is specific, sensitive,reproducible and easy to operate.

In one embodiment, the levels of appendicitis biomarker proteins aredetermined by contacting a urine sample with a first antibody thatspecifically binds to a biomarker protein to be measured underconditions permitting formation of a complex between the antibody andthe appendicitis biomarker proteins (e.g. LRG, S100-A8, ORM1, PLG,MASP2, AZGP1, ApoD and SERPINA3). The amount of complex formed is thenmeasured as a measure of the level of the appendicitis biomarkerprotein, and the amount of complex formed is compared to the amount ofcomplex formed between the first antibody and a predetermined referenceamount of the appendicitis biomarker protein. This predeterminedreference level amount of the appendicitis biomarker protein is theamount found in the urine of healthy humans. A level above the referencelevel amount of an appendicitis biomarker protein indicates that thehuman has acute appendicitis.

In one embodiment, the first antibody is detectably labeled. Detectablylabeling the first antibody is appropriate for use, for example, instandard ELISA assays where biomarker protein is absorbed to an ELISAplate, or in Western Blot analysis, or certain LFIA dipstick analyses.

In one embodiment, the first antibody is immobilized on a solid support,for example, when using a “Sandwich ELISA” or a dipstick analysis, thenthe amount of complex formed can measured by detecting binding of asecond antibody that specifically binds to the appendicitis biomarkerprotein (e.g. LRG, S100-A8, ORM1, PLG, MASP2, AZGP1, ApoD and SERPINA3)under conditions permitting formation of a complex between the secondantibody and the appendicitis biomarker protein, wherein the secondantibody does not substantially cross-react with the first antibody, andwherein the second antibody is detectably labeled.

Any solid support can be used, including but not limited to,nitrocellulose, solid organic polymers, such as polystyrene, orlaminated dipsticks such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,550,375 and5,656,448, which is specifically incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety.

In one embodiment, the levels of two appendicitis biomarker proteinsdefining a first and a second appendicitis biomarker protein, aremeasured using at least two antibodies specific to each appendicitisbiomarker protein to be measured. Each antibody specifically reactseither the first appendicitis biomarker protein or the secondappendicitis biomarker protein to be measured while not substantiallycross-reacting with the other appendicitis biomarker proteins to bemeasured.

In one embodiment, the levels of three biomarker proteins defining afirst biomarker protein, a second biomarker protein, and a thirdbiomarker protein, are measured using at least three antibodies specificto each biomarker protein to be measured, wherein each antibodyspecifically reacts either the first biomarker protein, the secondbiomarker protein, or the third biomarker protein to be measured whilenot substantially cross-reacting with the other biomarker proteins to bemeasured.

In one embodiment, the levels of four biomarker proteins defining afirst, a second, a third and a fourth biomarker protein, are measuredusing at least four antibodies specific to each biomarker protein to bemeasured, wherein each antibody specifically reacts either the firstbiomarker protein, the second biomarker protein, the third biomarkerprotein, or the fourth biomarker protein to be measured while notsubstantially cross-reacting with the other biomarker proteins to bemeasured.

In one embodiment, the appendicitis biomarker proteins are selected fromthe group consisting of LRG, S100-A8, ORM1, PLG, MASP2, AZGP1, ApoD andSERPINA3.

In one embodiment, the levels of biomarker proteins in urine aredetected by a lateral flow immunoassay test (LFIA), also known as theimmunochromatographic assay, or strip test. LFIAs are a simple deviceintended to detect the presence (or absence) of a target antigen in afluid sample. There are currently many LFIA tests are used for medicaldiagnostics either for home testing, point of care testing, orlaboratory use. LFIA tests are a form of immunoassay in which the testsample flows along a solid substrate via capillary action. After thesample is applied to the test it encounters a coloured reagent whichmixes with the sample and transits the substrate encountering lines orzones which have been pretreated with an antibody or antigen. Dependingupon the antigens present in the sample the coloured reagent can becomebound at the test line or zone. LFIAs are essentially immunoassaysadapted to operate along a single axis to suit the test strip format ora dipstick format. Strip tests are extremely versatile and can be easilymodified by one skilled in the art for detecting an enormous range ofantigens from fluid samples such as urine, blood, water samples etc.Strip tests are also known as dip stick test, the name bearing from theliteral action of “dipping” the test strip into a fluid sample to betested. LFIA strip test are easy to use, require minimum training andcan easily be included as components of point-of-care test (POCT)diagnostics to be use on site in the field.

LFIA tests can be operated as either competitive or sandwich assays.Sandwich LFIAs are similar to sandwich ELISA. The sample firstencounters coloured particles which are labeled with antibodies raisedto the target antigen. The test line will also contain antibodies to thesame target, although it may bind to a different epitope on the antigen.The test line will show as a coloured band in positive samples. Example5 illustrates a sandwich LFIA in the test strip format. CompetitiveLFIAs are similar to competitive ELISA. The sample first encounterscoloured particles which are labeled with the target antigen or ananalogue. The test line contains antibodies to the target/its analogue.Unlabelled antigen in the sample will block the binding sites on theantibodies preventing uptake of the coloured particles. The test linewill show as a coloured band in negative samples.

A typical test strip consists of the following components: (1) sampleapplication area comprising an absorbent pad (i.e. the matrix ormaterial) onto which the test sample is applied; (2) conjugate orreagent pad—this contains antibodies specific to the target antigenconjugated to coloured particles (usually colloidal gold particles, orlatex microspheres); test results area comprising a reactionmembrane—typically a hydrophobic nitrocellulose or cellulose acetatemembrane onto which anti-antigen antibodies are immobilized in a lineacross the membrane as a capture zone or test line (a control zone mayalso be present, containing antibodies specific for the conjugateantibodies); and (4) optional wick or waste reservoir—a furtherabsorbent pad designed to draw the sample across the reaction membraneby capillary action and collect it. The components of the strip areusually fixed to an inert backing material and may be presented in asimple dipstick format or within a plastic casing with a sample port andreaction window showing the capture and control zones. While notstrictly necessary, most tests will incorporate a second line whichcontains an antibody that picks up free latex/gold in order to confirmthe test has operated correctly. FIGS. 11-19 show the various componentsand embodiments of several test strips.

In some embodiments, the lateral flow immunoassay is a double antibodysandwich assay, a competitive assay, a quantitative assay or variationsthereof. FIGS. 15, 16, 17, Example 5 and Example 6 exemplify doubleantibody sandwich LFIA in a test strip format.

There are a number of variations on lateral flow technology. It is alsopossible to apply multiple capture zones to create a multiplex test.FIGS. 14 and 19 exemplify a multiplex LFIA in a test strip format. Inone embodiment, a diagnostic kit can comprise multiple LFIA test strips,one strip for a different biomarker protein. In another embodiment, adiagnostic kit can comprise a single composite LFIA test strip fordetermining the levels of several biomarker proteins. Such diagnostickits and LFIA test strips can be used as POCT in the field.

The use of “dip sticks” or LFIA test strips and other solid supportshave been described in the art in the context of an immunoassay for anumber of antigens. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,943,522; 6,485,982; 6,187,598;5,770,460; 5,622,871; 6,565,808, U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/278,676; U.S. Ser. No. 09/579,673 and U.S. Ser. No. 10/717,082, whichare incorporated herein by reference in their entirety, are non-limitingexamples of such lateral flow test devices. Three U.S. patents (U.S.Pat. No. 4,444,880, issued to H. Tom; U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,924, issued toR. N. Piasio; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,884, issued to J. T. Shen)describe the use of “dip stick” technology to detect soluble antigensvia immunochemical assays. The apparatuses and methods of these threepatents broadly describe a first component fixed to a solid surface on a“dip stick” which is exposed to a solution containing a soluble antigenthat binds to the component fixed upon the “dip stick,” prior todetection of the component-antigen complex upon the stick.

A urine dipstick is a colorimetric chemical assay that can be used todetermine the pH, specific gravity, protein, glucose, ketone, bilirubin,urobilinogen, blood, leukocyte, and nitrite levels of an individual'surine. It consists of a reagent stick-pad, which is immersed in a freshurine specimen and then withdrawn. After predetermined times the colorsof the reagent pad are compared to standardized reference charts.

The urine dipstick offers an inexpensive and fast method to performscreening urinalyses, which help in identifying the presence of variousdiseases or health problems. A urine dipstick provides a simple andclear diagnostic guideline and can be used in the methods and kits asdescribed herein. Accordingly, one aspect of the presents inventionrelates to a method for detecting acute appendicitis using a device,such as a dipstick, to test for the presence of appendicitis biomarkersas described herein. Dipsticks useful in the present invention can beused to test for at least one appendicitis biomarker, for example LRG ormultiple biomarkers, such as any combination selected from the group ofleucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8 (calgranulin); α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM); plasminogen (PLG); mannan-binding lectin serineprotease 2 (MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1); apolipoprotein D(ApoD); α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3), or alternatively, multiplebiomarkers selected from any combination listed in Table 1. Combinationdipsticks can be used to test for at least two appendicitis biomarkersselected from the group of leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8(calgranulin); α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM); plasminogen (PLG);mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein(AZGP1); apolipoprotein D (ApoD); α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3), oralternatively, multiple biomarkers selected from any combination listedin Table 1. Examples of combinations of two appendicitis biomarkers areLRG and ORM; LRG and S100-A8; LRG and PLG; LRG and MASP2; LRG and AZGP1;LRG and ApoD; LRG and SERPINA3; ORM and S100-A8; ORM and PLG; ORM andMASP2; ORM and ApoD; ORM and SERPINA3; S100-A8 and PLG; S100-A8 andMASP2; S100-A8 and ApoD; S100-A8 and SERPINA3; PLG and MASP2; PLG andApoD; PLG and SEPRINA3; MASP2 and ApoD; MASP2 and SERPINA3; and Apo andSERPINA3. Combination dipsticks can be used to test for at least threeappendicitis biomarkers, at least four appendicitis biomarkers, at leastfive appendicitis biomarkers, or at least six appendicitis biomarkersselected from the group of leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8(calgranulin); α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM); plasminogen (PLG);mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein(AZGP1); apolipoprotein D (ApoD); α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3), oralternatively, multiple biomarkers selected from any combination listedin Table 1. Combination dipsticks can be used to test for at least sevenappendicitis biomarkers selected from the group of leucine-richα-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8 (calgranulin); α-1-acid glycoprotein 1(ORM); plasminogen (PLG); mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2(MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1); apolipoprotein D (ApoD);α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3), or alternatively, multiple biomarkersselected from any combination listed in Table 1. An example of acombination of seven appendicitis biomarkers is LRG, ORM, S100-A8, PLG,MASP2, ApoD, and SERPINA3. Uses of dipsticks are commonly known in theart, and are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,972,594 to Heine, which isincorporated herein in its entirety by reference which is used to detectthe presence of neutrophil defensins to diagnose reproductive tractinflammation and preeclampsia.

Other dipsticks and related components are well known in the art, forexample dipsticks to detect leukocytes and leukocyte enzymes in bodyfluids have been patented. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,448 to Kanget al, which is incorporated herein in its entirety discloses a dipstickencompassed for use in the present invention. Additionally, U.S. Pat.No. 4,758,508 to Schnabel, et al. describes an agent and a method fordetecting esterolytic and/or proteolytic enzymes in body fluids. U.S.Pat. No. 4,637,979 to Skjold, et al. describes a composition and testdevice for determining the presence of leukocytes in test samplesincluding body fluids such as urine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,842 describespyrrole compounds, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,460 (both to Corey) describesnovel compounds for detecting the presence of hydrolytic analytesincluding leukocytes, esterase, and protease, in a test sample,including urine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,340 to Corey describes a method forpreparing 3-hydroxy pyrroles and esters thereof, which are used to testsamples including urine. A composition and test device for determiningthe presence of leukocytes, esterase, and protease in a body fluidincluding urine is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,855 to Corey, et al.A method for determining the concentration of white blood cells in urineor other biological fluid is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,044 toNoffsinger, et al. A method for preparing an ester used to detectleukocyte cells, esterase, and protease in body fluids such as urine isdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,716,236 to Ward, et al. All of thesepatents, which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference,identify an abnormally high level of leukocytes in a patient's urine andproduce a signal to indentify likelihood that the subject from which theurine was obtained has a pathological condition such as kidney orurogenital tract infection or other dysfunction.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a LFIA device suchas a dipstick to identify appendicitis biomarkers in a urine testsample. In one embodiment is a method for detecting acute appendicitisusing a LFIA device, such as a dipstick, having diagnostic test reagentsto detect acute appendicitis. The diagnostic test reagents react withthe test sample, such as urine test sample to produce a change uponcontact with the test sample, such as urine. Another embodiment of theinvention is a device, such as a dipstick, that has (1) a positiveindication for the presence of acute appendicitis and (2) a negativeindication for the absence of acute appendicitis. The difference betweenthe positive indication and the negative indication is pre-determined.

In some embodiments, the present invention also provides a method fordetermining if a subject has a likelihood of acute appendicitis. In someembodiments, the method begins with obtaining a urine sample from asubject, such as a symptomatic patient for appendicitis. Symptomaticpatients for appendicitis are described herein. Once the sample isobtained, a device having diagnostic test reagents that detect thepresence of at least one appendicitis biomarker, such as leucine-richα-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8 (calgranulin); α-1-acid glycoprotein 1(ORM); plasminogen (PLG); mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2(MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1); apolipoprotein D (ApoD);α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3) or any listed from Table 1 is contactedwith the urine sample. Depending on the type of device used, a certainamount of time might have to pass before the device is read. Forexample, as a general guideline but not as a limitation, when using aMULTISTIX-2 by Bayer Aktiengesellschaft (Fed. Rep. Germany) two minutespass between the time that the device is contacted with the sample andwhen it is read to produce an experimental test result. The MULTISTIX-2dipstick is sold to test urine. The experimental test result is thencompared to pre-determined test results that indicate either thepresence or absence of acute appendicitis.

In some embodiments, the method to diagnose acute appendicitis in asubject uses a quantitative device (such as, for example, theMULTISTIX-2, MULTISTIX-10, URISTIX-4, or any appendicitisbiomarker-detecting device as disclosed herein) or the subject inventivedevice that has two indications, one for a positive result and one for anegative result. When using such a quantitative device, it produces arange of results. For example, the MULTISTIX-2 produces quantitativeresults of 0, trace, +1, +2 and +3. Quantitative results also include“Between +1 and +2” and “Between +2 and +3.” A test result of 0, trace,and +1 corresponds to the absence of acute appendicitis). A test resultof “Between +1 and +2”, “Moderate (+2)”, “Between +2 and +3”, and “Large(+3)” corresponds to the presence of acute appendicitis). Thepre-determination is done using a study where the range of the urinemarker presence is determined based on the range in urine from confirmedappendicitis subjects as compared to the range of urine maker in theurine from healthy (i.e. confirmed non-appendicitis) subjects.

In some embodiments, a device, such as a dipstick immunological deviceas disclosed herein can includes (1) a matrix (preferably filter paper)with diagnostic test reagents and (2) a mounting substrate (preferablypolystyrene film), which typically does not absorb the test (e.g. urine)sample, such that the user can hold onto the substrate withoutcontacting the sample. The device produces a visual change in the matrixupon contact with the urine sample. In some embodiments, the matrix hastwo indicators-a first that indicates the presence of acute appendicitisand a second that indicates the absence of appendicitis. The firstindicator produces a positive test result and the second indicatorproduces a negative result. The test result is positive when the testresult is pre-determined to correspond with a level of the appendicitisbiomarker which is indicative of acute appendicitis. Conversely, a testresult is negative when the test result is pre-determined to be belowthe level of an appendicitis biomarker which indicates the absence ofacute appendicitis. The device, such as a dipstick device determines thepresence of acute appendicitis with the positive test result, and theabsence of acute appendicitis with the negative test result.

In some embodiments, the diagnostic test reagents may be associated withthe matrix by any physical or chemical means, including, for exampleimpregnation, coating, linking, and covalent attachment. The matrix maytake any convenient physical form, such as a card, pad, strip, ordipstick. Such diagnostic test reagents include the compositions of theabove-referenced patents, including an ester (preferably a chromogenicester) and a diazonium salt such as those described in U.S. Pat. No.4,637,979. Another preferred reagent is a derivatized pyrrole amino acidester, a diazonium salt, a buffer, and non-reactive ingredients asdescribed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,645,842; 4,637,979; 4,657,855; 4,704,460;4,758,508; and 4,774,340. The preferred amounts of these ingredients isbased on dry weight at the time of impregnation and is as follows: about0.4% w/w derivatized pyrrole amino acid ester, about 0.2% w/w diazoniumsalt, about 40.9% w/w buffer, and about 58.5% w/w non-reactiveingredients.

In one embodiment, the test reagent, e.g. the anti-antigen antibody ofthe immunoassay is detectably labeled. In some embodiments, thedetectable label is selected from a group consisting of enzyme,fluorescent, biotin, gold, latex, hapten and radioisotope labeling. Adetectable-hapten includes but is not limited to biotin, fluorescein,digoxigenin, dinitrophenyl (DNP). Other labels include but are notlimited to colloidal gold and latex beads. The latex beads can also becolored. Methods of labeling antibodies, antibody-based moiety, orproteins are known in the art, for example, as described in “ColloidalGold. Principles. Methods and Applications”, Hayat M A (ed) (1989-91).Vols 1-3, Academic press, London; in “Techniques inImmunocytochemistry”, Bullock G R and Petrusz P (eds) (1982-90) Vols 1,2, 3, and 4, Academic Press, London; in “Principles of BiologicalMicrotechnique”, Baker J R (1970), Methuen, London; Lillie R D (1965),Histopathologic Technique and practical Histochemistry, 3rd ed, McGrawHill, New York; Berryman M A, et al (1992), J. Histochem Cytochem 40, 6,845-857, all of which are incorporated hereby reference in theirentirety.

In one embodiment, the detectable label is a dye. A “dye” refers to asubstance, compound or particle that can be detected, particularly byvisual, fluorescent or instrumental means. A dye can be, for example,but not limited to, a pigment produced as a coloring agent or ink, suchas Brilliant Blue, 3132 Fast Red 2R and 4230 Malachite Blue Lake, allavailable from Hangzhou Hongyan Pigment Chemical Company, China. The“dye” can also be a particulate label, such as, but not limited to, bluelatex beads or gold particles. The particulate labels may or may not bebound to a protein, depending upon if it is desired for the particles tomove in the test strip or not. If the particles are to be immobilized inthe test strip, the particles may be conjugated to a protein, e.g. theanti-antigen antibody, which in turn is bound to the test strip byeither physical or chemical means.

In colloidal gold labeling technique, the unique red color of theaccumulated gold label, when observed by lateral or transverse flowalong a membrane on which an antigen is captured by an immobilizedantibody, or by observation of the red color intensity in solution,provides an extremely sensitive method for detecting sub nanogramquantities of proteins in solution. A colloidal gold conjugate consistsof a suspension of gold particles coated with a selected protein ormacromolecule (such as an antibody or antibody-based moiety). The goldparticles may be manufactured to any chosen size from 1-250 nm. Thisgold probe detection system, when incubated with a specific target, suchas in a tissue section, will reveal the target through the visibility ofthe gold particles themselves. For detection by eye, gold particles willalso reveal immobilized antigen on a solid phase such as a blottingmembrane through the accumulated red color of the gold sol. Silverenhancement of this gold precipitate also gives further sensitivity ofdetection. Suppliers of colloidal gold reagents for labeling areavailable from SPI-MARK™. Polystyrene latex Bead size 200 nm coloredlatex bead coated with antibody SIGMA ALDRICH®, Molecular Probes, BangsLaboratory Inc., and AGILENT® Technologies.

Other detection systems can also be used, for example, abiotin-streptavidin system. In this system, the antibodiesimmunoreactive (i.e. specific for) with the biomarker of interest isbiotinylated. Quantity of biotinylated antibody bound to the biomarkeris determined using a streptavidin-peroxidase conjugate and achromagenic substrate. Such streptavidin peroxidase detection kits arecommercially available, e.g. from DAKO; Carpinteria, Calif.

Protein binding agents described herein such as antibodies andantibody-based moiety can alternatively be labeled with any of a numberof fluorescent compounds such as fluorescein isothiocyanate, europium,lucifer yellow, rhodamine β isothiocyanate (Wood, P. In: Principles andPractice of Immunoasay, Stockton Press, New York, pages 365-392 (1991))for use in immunoassays. In conjunction with the known techniques forseparation of antibody-antigen complexes, these fluorophores can be usedto quantify the biomarker of interest. The same applies tochemiluminescent immunoassay in which case antibody or biomarker ofinterest can be labeled with isoluminol or acridinium esters (Krodel, E.et al., In: Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence: Current Status. JohnWiley and Sons Inc. New York, pp 107-110 (1991); Weeks, I. et al., Clin.Chem. 29:1480-1483 (1983)). Radioimmunoassay (Kashyap, M. L. et al., J.Clin. Invest, 60:171-180 (1977)) is another technique in which antibodycan be used after labeling with a radioactive isotope such as ¹²⁵I. Someof these immunoassays can be easily automated by the use of appropriateinstruments such as the IMX™ (Abbott, Irving, Tex.) for a fluorescentimmunoassay and Ciba Coming ACS 180™ (Ciba Corning, Medfield, Mass.) fora chemiluminescent immunoassay.

A “LFIA test strip” or “dip stick” can include one or more bibulous ornon-bibulous materials or matrices. In reference to a “LFIA test strip”or “dip stick”, the terms “material” and “matrix” are usedinterchangeably. If a test strip comprises more than one material, theone or more materials are preferably in fluid communication. Onematerial of a test strip may be overlaid on another material of the teststrip, such as for example, filter paper overlaid on nitrocellulosemembrane. Alternatively or in addition, a test strip can include aregion comprising one or more materials followed by a region comprisingone or more different materials. In this case, the regions are in fluidcommunication and may or may not partially overlap one another. Suitablematerials for test strips include, but are not limited to, materialsderived from cellulose, such as filter paper, chromatographic paper,nitrocellulose, and cellulose acetate, as well as materials made ofglass fibers, nylon, dacron, PVC, polyacrylamide, cross-linked dextran,agarose, polyacrylate, ceramic materials, and the like. The material ormaterials of the test strip may optionally be treated to modify theircapillary flow characteristics or the characteristics of the appliedsample. For example, the sample application region of the test strip maybe treated with buffers to correct the pH or specific gravity of anapplied urine sample, to ensure optimal test conditions.

The material or materials can be a single structure such as a sheet cutinto strips or it can be several strips or particulate material bound toa support or solid surface such as found, for example, in thin-layerchromatography and may have an absorbent pad either as an integral partor in liquid contact. The material can also be a sheet having lanesthereon, capable of spotting to induce lane formation, wherein aseparate assay can be conducted in each lane. The material can have arectangular, circular, oval, triagonal or other shape provided thatthere is at least one direction of traversal of a test solution bycapillary migration. Other directions of traversal may occur such as inan oval or circular piece contacted in the center with the testsolution. However, the main consideration is that there be at least onedirection of flow to a predetermined site.

The support for the test strip, where a support is desired or necessary,will normally be water insoluble, frequently non-porous and rigid butmay be elastic, usually hydrophobic, and porous and usually will be ofthe same length and width as the strip but may be larger or smaller. Thesupport material can be transparent, and, when a test device isassembled, a transparent support material can be on the side of the teststrip that can be viewed by the user, such that the transparent supportmaterial forms a protective layer over the test strip where it may beexposed to the external environment, such as by an aperture in the frontof a test device. A wide variety of materials, both natural andsynthetic, and combinations thereof, may be employed provided only thatthe support does not interfere with the capillary action of the materialor materials, or non-specifically bind assay components, or interferewith the signal producing system. Illustrative polymers includepolyethylene, polypropylene, poly(4-methylbutene), polystyrene,polymethacrylate, poly(ethylene terephthalate), nylon, poly(vinylbutyrate), glass, ceramics, metals, and the like. Elastic supports maybe made of polyurethane, neoprene, latex, silicone rubber and the like.

In some embodiments, a dipstick device has one indication of thepresence of acute appendicitis and a second indication for the absenceof acute appendicitis. The two indications preferably are a negative (−)symbol and a positive (+) symbol, but could be any two indications. Inone embodiment, the device has the negative indication (e.g., the “−”portion of a possible “+” symbol) containing reagents that reacts withall samples. That is, the diagnostic test reagents react to someconstituent analyte, such as urea which is present in all urine samples.Alternatively, the diagnostic test reagents test an aspect of thesample, such as pH, that every sample has. The positive indication(e.g., the “|” portion of a “+” symbol) contains a reagent that thereacts only with a sample containing the presence of a test appendicitisbiomarker which is above a certain pre-defined level, such that itreacts in urine samples which only contain the presence of theappendicitis biomarker (i.e. of a LRG biomarker) above a certain level,i.e. above a pre-defined level of the appendicitis biomarker. Anotherembodiment has the negative indicator (e.g., the “−” portion of apossible “+” symbol) which contains reagents that reacts with the samplewhich either has the absence of the test appendicitis biomarker (i.e.absence of a LRG biomarker) or the level of the test appendicitisbiomarker (i.e. the LRG biomarker) below a certain pre-defined orthreshold level. The positive indication (e.g., the “|” part of the “+”symbol) has a lower sensitivity to the presence of a test appendicitisbiomarker (i.e. LRG biomarker) and thus such the reagents react onlywith urine samples containing level of the urine marker (i.e. LRGbiomarker) above a pre-defined level.

In some embodiments, a test device, such as a dipstick device has texton the device in two places. In one place the text indicates a positiveresult (i.e. the likelihood the subject has acute appendicitis). Inanother, it indicates a negative result (i.e. the likelihood the subjectdoes not have acute appendicitis). Next to the indications are matriceshaving the appropriate diagnostic test reagents. For example, next tothe negative indication is a matrix having diagnostic test reagents thatreact with all urine samples, regardless of the content of appendicitisbiomarkers as disclosed herein. Next to the positive indication is amatrix having diagnostic test reagents that react only with samples thathave the presence of the test appendicitis biomarker, (e.g. LRG, or anyor any combination of appendicitis biomarkers listed in Table 1) above apre-defined level. In some embodiments, such a device such as onediscussed in FIG. 12, does not require a chart, such as a colorationchart, to interpret the results. In some embodiments of this aspect ofthe invention, this enables the detection device, such as a dipstickdevice (and the corresponding method) to be used easily by one withoutspecial training and provides a more rapid diagnostic (and method) fordetermining if a subject is likely to have acute appendicitis. In someembodiments of this aspect of the invention, such a device is ideal forpoint-of-care testing application.

Production and manufacturer of dipsticks are well known by ordinaryskill in the art. Dipsticks are commercially available from BayerCorporation of Elkhart, Ind., as well as other commercial sources. Thedipstick is dipped into a well mixed urine sample, and after a timeperiod, for example between about thirty seconds (30 s) to about twominutes (2 mins) or more, the various reagent bands are visually oroptically examined for color changes. The bands can be visually comparedto a preprinted color chart in order to determine the amount of each ofthe constituents or parameters being measured. It is also possible tooptically scan using a machine or optical scanner the dipstick andthereby obtain instrument readings of color intensity or wave lengththrough the use of a particular instrument adapted for reading thereagents and color of the dipstick. Examples of such instruments ormachines are manufactured by Ames. Examples of useful machines orinstruments for optically scanning the dipstick bands are able todistinguish between positive and negative reaction or reagent bands, waswell as differences in color distribution of the reagent bands in thepresence (i.e. above a certain threshold level) or absence (or below acertain threshold level) of the test appendicitis biomarker(s). In someembodiments, the instrument is capable of quantify a number of reagentbands as well as quantify the overall color intensity sensed on theband.

In some embodiments, the immunoassays operate on a purely qualitativebasis. However it is possible to measure the intensity of the test lineto determine the quantity of antigen in the sample when using animmunoassay such a LFIA. Implementing a magnetic immunoassay (MIA) inthe lateral flow test form also allows for getting a quantified result.

Instruments have been developed which both determine the chemicalconstituents of the urine and also assist in the microscopic analysis,for example the instrument disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,821 which isincorporated herein in its entirety by reference. Such an instrument isthe Yellow IRIS, which automatically places the sample on the urinedipstick and then reads the chemical results. FIG. 8 of U.S. Pat. No.6,004,821 shows a schematic depiction of such an automated calorimetricmicroscopical instrument assembly (which is denoted generally by thenumeral 54), and which can be used to scan a urine sample, and can,without significant human intervention, colorometrically analyze thewavelengths of the colors imparted to the dipstick by the urine in thechamber 14, either colorometrically and/or morphometrically.Accordingly, such an instrument, which is specifically adapted to scanthe reaction of the dipstick after contact with a urine sample for thepresence of the appendicitis biomarkers (such as at least one selectedfrom Table 1) is encompassed for use in the present invention.

In some embodiments, the dipstick uses reagents such ascopper-creatinine and iron-creatinine complexes have peroxidaseactivity. Other dipstick reagents can use reagents such as3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), and diisopropyl benzenedihydroperoxide (DBDH) which are used with peroxidase. In someembodiments, a dipstick for use to detect the presence of appendicitisbiomarkers is based upon the first-generation devices which relied onthe same colorimetric reaction used for assessing the presence ofglucose test strips for urine. Besides glucose oxidase, a test kit foruse herein can contain a benzidine derivative, which is oxidized to ablue polymer by the hydrogen peroxide formed in the oxidation reaction.Care must be taken if such a dipstick is generated to ensure the teststrip is developed after a precise interval after contact with the urinetest sample as well as frequent calibration of the meter to read thetest result. The same principle is used in test strips that have beencommercialized for the detection Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). These teststrips use a beta-hydroxybutyrate-dehydrogenase enzyme instead of aglucose oxidizing enzyme and have been used to detect and help treatsome of the complications that can result from prolonged hyperglycaemia.Blood alcohol sensors using the same approach but with alcoholdehydrogenase enzymes have been developed.

In another embodiment, the device, such as a dipstick device uses anelectrochemical method. Test strips contain a capillary that sucks up areproducible amount of urine. The presence of an appendicitis biomarkersuch as any or a combination of those listed in Table 1 in the urinereacts with an enzyme electrode containing protein-binding agents withthe test appendicitis biomarker. The coulometric method is a techniquewhere the total amount of charge generated by the specific binding ofthe appendicitis biomarker to the specific protein-binding agentreaction is measured over a period of time. This is analogous tothrowing a ball and measuring the distance it has covered so as todetermine how hard it was thrown. The amperometric method is used bysome meters and measures the electrical current generated at a specificpoint in time. This is analogous to throwing a ball and using the speedat which it is travelling at a point in time to estimate how hard it wasthrown. The coulometric method can allow for variable test times,whereas the test time on a meter using the amperometric method is alwaysfixed. Both methods give an estimation of the concentration of theappendicitis biomarker in the urine sample.

In one embodiment, the levels of appendicitis biomarker proteins inurine are detected by a magnetic immunoassay (MIA). MIA is a type ofdiagnostic immunoassay using magnetic beads as labels in lieu ofconventional enzymes (ELISA), radioisotopes (RIA) or fluorescentmoieties (fluorescent immunoassays). This assay involves the specificbinding of a protein binding agent to an appendicitis biomarker protein,such as an antibody binding to its antigen, where a magnetic label isconjugated to one element of the pair. The presence of magnetic beads isthen detected by a magnetic reader (magnetometer) which measures themagnetic field change induced by the beads. The signal measured by themagnetometer is proportional to the antigen or biomarker quantity in theinitial sample.

Magnetic beads are made of nanometric-sized iron oxide particlesencapsulated or glued together with polymers. These magnetic beads canrange from 35 nm up to 4.5 μm. The component magnetic nanoparticlesrange from 5 to 50 nm and exhibit a unique quality referred to assuperparamagnetism in the presence of an externally applied magneticfield. Magnetic labels exhibit several features very well adapted forsuch applications: they are not affected by reagent chemistry orphoto-bleaching and are therefore stable over time; the magneticbackground in a biomolecular sample is usually insignificant; sampleturbidity or staining have no impact on magnetic properties; andmagnetic beads can be manipulated remotely by magnetism.

The use of MIA is well known in the art, for example, Dittmer W U andcolleagues (J Immunol Methods. 2008, 338:40-6) described a sensitive andrapid immunoassay for detection and measurement parathyroid hormoneusing magnetic particle labels and magnetic actuation. The assayinvolves a 1-step sandwich immunoassay with no fluid replacement steps.The detection limit is the 10 pM range and the assay took only 15minutes; Kuma H and colleagues (Rinsho Byori. 2007, 55:351-7) developeda sensitive immunoassay system using magnetic nanoparticles made fromFe₃O₄; and Kuramitz H. reviews the current state of concerningelectrochemical immunoassays using magnetic microbeads as a solid phasein Anal Bioanal Chem. 2009, 394:61-9. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,252,493;5,238,811; 5,236,824; 7,604,956; U.S. Patent Application No.20090216082; 20090181359; and 20090263834 all describe variousimprovements and versions of MIA. These references are all incorporatedherein by reference in their entirety.

Magnetometers are instruments that can detect the presence and measurethe total magnetic signal of a sample. An effective MIA is one that iscapable of separating naturally occurring magnetic background (noise)from the weak magnetically labeled target (signal). Various approachesand devices have been employed to achieve a meaningful signal-to-noiseratio (SNR) for bio-sensing applications:giant magneto-resistive sensorsand spin valves, piezo-resistive cantilevers, inductive sensors,superconducting quantum interference devices, anisotropicmagneto-resistive rings, and miniature Hall sensors. MIA that exploitsthe non-linear magnetic properties of magnetic labels can effectivelyuse the intrinsic ability of a magnetic field to pass through plastic,water, nitrocellulose, and other materials, thus allowing for truevolumetric measurements in various immunoassay formats. Unlikeconventional methods that measure the susceptibility ofsuperparamagnetic materials, a MIA based on non-linear magnetizationeliminates the impact of linear dia- or paramagnetic materials such assample matrix, consumable plastics and/or nitrocellulose. Although theintrinsic magnetism of these materials is very weak, with typicalsusceptibility values of −10-5 (dia) or +10-3 (para), when one isinvestigating very small quantities of superparamagnetic materials, suchas nanograms per test, the background signal generated by ancillarymaterials cannot be ignored. In MIA based on non-linear magneticproperties of magnetic labels the beads are exposed to an alternatingmagnetic field at two frequencies, f1 and f2. In the presence ofnon-linear materials such as superparamagnetic labels, a signal can berecorded at combinatorial frequencies, for example, at f=f1±2×f2. Thissignal is exactly proportional to the amount of magnetic material insidethe reading coil. Ultrasensitive magnetic biosensor for homogeneousimmunoassay have been described by Y. R. Chemla, et al., Proc Natl AcadSci USA. 2000, 97:14268-14272. This is incorporate hereby reference inits entirety.

In one embodiment, the levels of biomarker proteins in urine aredetected by a diffusion immunoassay (DIA). In this assay, the transportof molecules perpendicular to flow in a microchannel, e.g. in amicrofluidic chip, is affected by binding between antigens andantibodies. By imaging the steady-state position of labeled componentsin a flowing stream, the concentration of very dilute analytes, in thisinvention, the urine biomarkers, can be measured in a few microliters ofsample in seconds. Microfluidics is the manipulation of microlitervolumes in channels with sub-millimeter dimensions. Microfluidicdiffusion immunoassays for the detection of analytes or biomarkers influid samples have been described in the art, for example, in U.S. Pat.Nos. 6,541,213; 6,949,377; 7,271,007; U.S. Patent Application No.20090194707; 20090181411; in Hatch et al., 2001, Nature Biotechnology19(5): 461-465; K. Scott Phillips and Quan Cheng, Anal. Chem., 2005,77:327-334; J. Hsieh, et al., Nanotech 2007 Vol. 3, TechnicalProceedings of the 2007 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show,Chapter 4: Micro and Nano Fluidics, pp 292-295; Frank Y. H. Lin et al.,Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, 2005, 12:418-425; and A.Bhattacharyya and C. M. Klapperich, 2007, Biomedical Microdevices, 9:245-251. These are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.U.S. Pat. No. 6,541,213 describes the use of a credit-card sizedmicrofluidic device to perform competitive immunoassays. The ability toperform assays in this microscale dimension affords an extremely rapid,homogenous, and cost effective alternative to current methods usedcommercially today. The credit-card sized microfluidic device can beintegrated into the development of point-of-use systems that allowreal-time answers to health questions while at the physician's office,home, workplace, school, shopping mall and other public places. Thesesystems include portable and handheld instruments with integratedlaboratory-tests-on-a-card (“lab cards”), as well as stand alone, singleuse lab cards being developed to provide rapid on-site results ininfectious diseases testing, nucleic acid testing, blood type analysis,cancer testing, and respiratory disease testing.

In one embodiment, the levels of biomarker proteins in urine aredetected by an on-the-spot assay also known as point-of-care assay.Point-of-care testing (POCT) is defined as diagnostic testing at or nearthe site of patient care. Currently majority of the detection anddiagnostic testing for analytes, toxin, pathogen toxins and antigens insamples are largely restricted to centralized laboratories because ofthe need for long assay times, complex and expensive equipment, andhighly trained technicians. POCT brings the test conveniently andimmediately to the patient. This increases the likelihood that thepatient will receive the results in a timely manner. POCT isaccomplished through the use of transportable, portable, and handheldinstruments (e.g., blood glucose meter, nerve conduction study device)and test kits (e.g., CRP, HBA1C, Homocystein, HIV salivary assay, etc.).POCTs are well known in the art, especially immunoassays. For example,the LFIA test strip or dip sticks can easily be integrated into a POCTdiagnostic kit. One skilled in the art would be able to modifyimmunoassays for POCT using different format, e.g. ELISA in amicrofluidic device format or a test strip format. For example, U.S.Patent Application No. 2009/0181411 describes a microfluidicdevice-based point-of-care immunoassay for biomarker moleculesassociated with pathology in a vertebrate host, man or animal. Themicrofluidic devices such as chips are formatted to either hand-heldcartridges (also termed “cards”), or cartridges for automated orsemi-automated, machine-aided testing. Microfluidic device-based assaysenable small-volume sampling, with point-of-care results from a broadvariety of biological fluids and samples in real time. In addition, theassay cartridges can be single use reagent packs, or be fullyself-contained and operable entirely by hand. This reference isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Embodiments of the invention further provide for diagnostic kits andproducts of manufacture comprising the diagnostic kits. The kits cancomprise a means for predicting acute appendicitis in a human.

In one embodiment, the kit comprises an indicator responsive to thelevel of biomarker protein in a sample of urine, wherein theappendicitis biomarker protein is selected from the group consisting ofLRG, S100-A8, ORM1, PLG, MASP2, AZGP1, ApoD and SERPINA3. In someembodiments, the indicator is in the form of a LFIA test strip or amicrofluidic device. In one embodiment, a diagnostic kit can comprisemultiple LFIA test strips, one strip for a different biomarker protein.In another embodiment, a diagnostic kit can comprise a single compositeLFIA test strip for determining the levels of several biomarkerproteins. In one embodiment, a diagnostic kit can comprise a singlemultichannel microfluidic device for determining the levels of severalbiomarker proteins. In another embodiment, a diagnostic kit can compriseseveral microfluidic devices for determining the levels of severalbiomarker proteins, one microfluidic device for a different biomarkerprotein.

The kits can further comprise cups or tubes, or any other collectiondevice for sample collection of urine.

In one embodiment, the kit can optionally further comprise at least onediagram and/or instructions describing the interpretation of testresults.

Protein-Binding Agents, Antibodies or Antisera Against BiomarkerProteins

In one embodiment, the methods disclosed herein uses antibodies oranti-sera for detecting, quantifying, and/or labeling LRG, S100-A8,ORM1, PLG, MASP2, AZGP1, ApoD and SERPINA3 described herein. Theantibodies can be obtained from a commercial source. These commercialantibodies can also be conjugated with labels, e.g. Cy3 or FITC.

Antibodies for use in the methods described herein can also be producedusing standard methods to produce antibodies, for example, by monoclonalantibody production (Campbell, A. M., Monoclonal Antibodies Technology:Laboratory Techniques in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, ElsevierScience Publishers, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (1984); St. Groth et al.,J. Immunology, (1990) 35: 1-21; and Kozbor et al., Immunology Today(1983) 4:72). Antibodies can also be readily obtained by using antigenicportions of the protein to screen an antibody library, such as a phagedisplay library by methods well known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat.No. 5,702,892 (U.S.A. Health & Human Services) and WO 01/18058(Novopharm Biotech Inc.) disclose bacteriophage display libraries andselection methods for producing antibody binding domain fragments.

Methods for the production of antibodies are disclosed in PCTpublication WO 97/40072 or U.S. Application. No. 2002/0182702, which areherein incorporated by reference. The processes of immunization toelicit antibody production in a mammal, the generation of hybridomas toproduce monoclonal antibodies, and the purification of antibodies may beperformed by described in “Current Protocols in Immunology” (CPI) (JohnWiley and Sons, Inc.) and Antibodies: A Laboratory Manual (Ed Harlow andDavid Lane editors, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 1988) which areboth incorporated by reference herein in their entireties; Brown,“Clinical Use of Monoclonal Antibodies,” in BIOTECHNOLOGY AND PHARMACY227-49, Pezzuto et al. (eds.) (Chapman & Hall 1993).

For example, to generate a polyclonal antibody against human LRG,S100-A8, ORM1, PLG, MASP2, AZGP1, ApoD or SERPINA3. Methods of makingrecombinant proteins are well known in the art. For example, full-lengthcDNAs of LRG, S100-A8, ORM1, PLG, MASP2, AZGP1, ApoD and SERPINA3(Genbank Accession Nos. NM_(—)052972.2, NM_(—)002964.3, NM_(—)000607.2,NM_(—)000301.2, NM_(—)006610.2, NM_(—)001185.2, NM_(—)001647.3, andNM_(—)001085.4 respectively) can be cloned into the pQE30 vectorcontaining an N-terminal hexa-histidine tag (QIAGEN, GmbH, Hilden,Germany), and then transformed into E. coli strain JM109 cells.Recombinant proteins is expressed and purified by affinitychromatography using Ni-nitriloacetic acid agarose (QIAGEN) according tothe manufacturer's instructions. The final preparation yielded a singlecalculated molecular weight of 89707 kDa band on SDS-PAGE and is usedfor the immunization of rabbits.

Detection of anti-antibodies to the appendicitis biomarkers can beachieved by direct labeling of the antibodies themselves, with labelsincluding a radioactive label such as ³H, ¹⁴C, ³⁵S, ¹²⁵I, or ¹³¹I, afluorescent label (e.g. Cy3, Cy5, FITC), a hapten label such as biotin,heavy metal such as gold, or an enzyme such as horse radish peroxidaseor alkaline phosphatase. Such methods are well known in the art.Alternatively, unlabeled primary antibody is used in conjunction withlabeled secondary antibody, comprising antisera, polyclonal antisera ora monoclonal antibody specific for the primary antibody. In anotherembodiment, the primary antibody or antisera is unlabeled, the secondaryantisera or antibody is conjugated with biotin and enzyme-linkedstrepavidin is used to produce visible staining for histochemicalanalysis.

In one embodiment, the levels of the appendicitis biomarker proteinsdescribed herein in a sample can be determined by mass spectrometry suchas MALDI/TOF (time-of-flight), SELDI/TOF, liquid chromatography-massspectrometry (LC-MS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), highperformance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS), capillaryelectrophoresis-mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonancespectrometry, or tandem mass spectrometry (e.g., MS/MS, MS/MS/MS,ESI-MS/MS, etc.). See for example, U.S. Patent Application Nos:20030199001, 20030134304, 20030077616, which are herein incorporated byreference in their entirety.

Mass spectrometry methods are well known in the art and have been usedto quantify and/or identify biomolecules, such as proteins (see, e.g.,Li et al. (2000) Tibtech 18:151-160; Rowley et al. (2000) Methods 20:383-397; and Kuster and Mann (1998) Curr. Opin. Structural Biol. 8:393-400). Further, mass spectrometric techniques have been developedthat permit at least partial de novo sequencing of isolated proteins.Chait et al., Science 262:89-92 (1993); Keough et al., Proc. Natl. Acad.Sci. USA. 96:7131-6 (1999); reviewed in Bergman, EXS 88:133-44 (2000).

In certain embodiments, a gas phase ion spectrophotometer is used. Inother embodiments, laser-desorption/ionization mass spectrometry is usedto analyze the sample. Modern laser desorption/ionization massspectrometry (“LDI-MS”) can be practiced in two main variations: matrixassisted laser desorption/ionization (“MALDI”) mass spectrometry andsurface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization (“SELDI”). In MALDI, theanalyte is mixed with a solution containing a matrix, and a drop of theliquid is placed on the surface of a substrate. The matrix solution thenco-crystallizes with the biological molecules. The substrate is insertedinto the mass spectrometer. Laser energy is directed to the substratesurface where it desorbs and ionizes the biological molecules withoutsignificantly fragmenting them. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,937(Hillenkamp et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,694 (Beavis & Chait).

In SELDI, the substrate surface is modified so that it is an activeparticipant in the desorption process. In one variant, the surface isderivatized with adsorbent and/or capture reagents that selectively bindthe protein of interest. In another variant, the surface is derivatizedwith energy absorbing molecules that are not desorbed when struck withthe laser. In another variant, the surface is derivatized with moleculesthat bind the protein of interest and that contain a photolytic bondthat is broken upon application of the laser. In each of these methods,the derivatizing agent generally is localized to a specific location onthe substrate surface where the sample is applied. See, e.g., U.S. Pat.No. 5,719,060 and WO 98/59361. The two methods can be combined by, forexample, using a SELDI affinity surface to capture an analyte and addingmatrix-containing liquid to the captured analyte to provide the energyabsorbing material.

For additional information regarding mass spectrometers, see, e.g.,Principles of Instrumental Analysis, 3rd edition., Skoog, SaundersCollege Publishing, Philadelphia, 1985; and Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia ofChemical Technology, 4.sup.th ed. Vol. 15 (John Wiley & Sons, New York1995), pp. 1071-1094.

Detection and quantification of the appendicitis biomarker proteins willtypically depend on the detection of signal intensity. This, in turn,can reflect the quantity and character of a polypeptide bound to thesubstrate. For example, in certain embodiments, the signal strength ofpeak values from spectra of a first sample and a second sample can becompared (e.g., visually, by computer analysis etc.), to determine therelative amounts of particular biomolecules. Software programs such asthe appendicitis biomarker WIZARD program (Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc.,Fremont, Calif.) can be used to aid in analyzing mass spectra. The massspectrometers and their techniques are well known to those of skill inthe art.

Diagnostic Imaging of Acute Appendicitis

In some embodiments, described herein is a method of diagnosinglikelihood of acute appendicitis in a subject by in situ histochemicalimaging of an appendix using at least a protein binding agent that bindspecifically to a biomarker selected from the group consisting ofleucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8 (calgranulin); α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM); plasminogen (PLG); mannan-binding lectin serineprotease 2 (MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1); apolipoprotein D(ApoD); and α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3).

In other embodiments, the method further comprises at least oneadditional different protein-binding agent that bind specifically to abiomarker selected from the group consisting AMBP; amyloid-like protein2; angiotensin converting enzyme 2; BAZ1B; carbonic anhydrase 1; CD14;chromogranin A; FBLN7; FXR2; hemoglobin α; hemoglobin β; interleukin-1receptor antagonist protein; inter-α-trypsin inhibitor;lipopolysaccharide binding protein; lymphatic vessel endothelialhyaluronan acid receptor 1; MLKL; nicastrin; novel protein (AccessionNo: IPI00550644); PDZK1 interacting protein 1; PRIC285; prostaglandin-H2D-isomerase; Rcl; S100-A9; serum amyloid A protein; SLC13A3; SLC2A1;SLC2A2; SLC4A1; SLC9A3; SORBS1; SPRX2; supervillin; TGFbeta2R; TTYH3;VA0D1; vascular adhesion molecule 1; versican; VIP36; α-1-acidglycoprotein 2; and β-1,3-galactosyltransferase. In other embodiments,the method further comprises at least one additional differentprotein-binding agent that bind specifically to a biomarker selectedfrom Table 1.

In one embodiment, the method for diagnosing likelihood of acuteappendicitis in a subject comprise (a) introducing a protein-bindingagent into the subject via a physiologically compatible vehicle in anamount effective for detection, wherein the protein binding agent indetectably labeled; (b) detecting the location of the protein-bindingagent at the appendix with an extracorporeal detection means capable ofdetecting the labeling means; and (c) quantifying the protein-bindingagent concentration in order to determine the presence and extent ofinflammation in the appendix. In one embodiment, the intensity of thelabel is directly proportional to the concentration of theprotein-binding agent that binds specifically to an appendicitisbiomarker protein.

In some embodiment, the protein-binding agent concentration measured byextracorporeal detection means in a patient is compared to theprotein-binding agent concentration in a healthy individual, wherein inthe detectable label and the imaging method are the same for both thepatient and the healthy individuals. In some embodiments, the patienthas at least one symptom associated with acute appendicitis as disclosedherein or as known to one skilled in the art such as a physician. Insome embodiments, the protein-binding agent concentration at theappendix of a patient is compared to the protein-binding agentconcentration that is the average obtained for a population, i.e. morethan two individuals, preferably ten or more, of healthy individuals,wherein in the detectable label and the imaging method are the same forboth the patient and the healthy individual.

In one embodiment, the protein-binding agent is introduced into thevascular system of the subject, for example, intravenously. In oneembodiment, the protein-binding agent is introduced into the abdomencavity of the subject, preferably within the vicinity of the appendix atthe lower right abdomen. In one embodiment, the protein-binding agent isintroduced into the peritoneal cavity, preferably within the vicinity ofthe appendix at the lower right abdomen.

In one embodiment, a fixed amount of time is allowed to lapse beforeimaging is performed.

In one embodiment, the protein-binding agent is an antibody or fragmentthereof. In one embodiment, the protein-binding agent is a monoclonalantibody or active fragment thereof. In one embodiment, theprotein-binding agent is a polyclonal antibody or active fragmentthereof. For example, the protein-binding agent is an anti-LRG antibodyor fragments thereof. In some embodiments, the protein-binding agent isan antibody that is specifically immunoreactive (i.e. binds specificallyto) to a biomarker protein selected from the group consisting ofleucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8 (calgranulin); α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM); plasminogen (PLG); mannan-binding lectin serineprotease 2 (MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1); apolipoprotein D(ApoD); α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3); AMBP; amyloid-like protein 2;angiotensin converting enzyme 2; BAZ1B; carbonic anhydrase 1; CD14;chromogranin A; FBLN7; FXR2; hemoglobin α; hemoglobin β; interleukin-1receptor antagonist protein; inter-α-trypsin inhibitor;lipopolysaccharide binding protein; lymphatic vessel endothelialhyaluronan acid receptor 1; MLKL; nicastrin; novel protein (AccessionNo: IPI00550644); PDZK1 interacting protein 1; PRIC285; prostaglandin-H2D-isomerase; Rcl; S100-A9; serum amyloid A protein; SLC13A3; SLC2A1;SLC2A2; SLC4A1; SLC9A3; SORBS1; SPRX2; supervillin; TGFbeta2R; TTYH3;VA0D1; vascular adhesion molecule 1; versican; VIP36; α-1-acidglycoprotein 2; β-1,3-galactosyltransferase and a biomarker selectedfrom Table 1.

In one embodiment, the protein-binding agent is conjugated to a labelfor extracorporeal detection of the protein binding agent located in thebody of the subject.

In some embodiments, the detectable label on the protein-binding agentis selected from the group comprising of radioisotopes, paramagneticlabels, echogenic liposomes, biotin, and fluorescence.

In some embodiments, the extracorporeal detection method is selectedfrom the group comprising magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computeraxial tomography (CAT) scan, positron emission tomography (PET) scan,electron beam, computed tomography (CT) scan, single photon emissioncomputed tomography (SPECT) imaging, gamma imaging, angiography,abdominal ultrasound, and abdominal radioactive and fluorescentdetection.

In one embodiment, radionuclide is used as the labeling means and thestep of detecting the location of the protein binding agent within thesubject further includes detecting radiation therefrom with a radiationdetector. In one embodiment, a radionuclide is the detectable labelconjugated to the protein binding agent.

In one embodiment, step of detecting radiation further includesemploying a gamma camera to detect and make an image of gamma radiationemitted by the labeling means of the protein binding reagent.

Suitable radionuclides include Co-57, Cu-67, Ga-67, Ga-68, Ru-97,Tc-99m, In-111, In-113m, I-123, I-125, I-131, Hg-197, Au-198, andPb-203. The radionuclides can be linked by direct labeling (e.g., byacidic buffered reactions or oxidative procedures) or by ligand exchangeor chelation. The radionuclides are preferably imaged with a radiationdetection means capable of detecting gamma radiation, such as a gammacamera or the like. Methods of radiolabeling of proteins for imaging arewell known to one skilled in the art, for examples, D. Hnatowich, etal., 1983, Science 220:613-615; M. R. McDevitt, et al., 2000, CancerRes. 60:6095-6100; DA Scheinberg, et al., 1982, Science, 215:1511-1513;and W. J. McBride, et al., 2009, J. Nucl. Med. 50, 991-998; and R.Macklis, B. et al., 1988, Science 240:1024-1026; U.S. Pat. Nos.4,472,509; 4,454,106; 4,634,586; 4,994,560; 5,286,850; U.S. PatentApplication Nos. 2008/0241967 and 20090297620. These are allincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Typically, radiation imaging cameras employ a conversion medium (whereinthe high energy gamma ray is absorbed, displacing an electron whichemits a photon upon its return to the orbital state), photoelectricdetectors arranged in a spatial detection chamber (to determine theposition of the emitted photons), and circuitry to analyze the photonsdetected in the chamber and produce an image.

The invention can also be practiced with non-radioactive labeling means,such as magnetic contrast agents capable of detection in magneticresonance imaging (MRI) systems. In such systems, a strong magneticfield is used to align the nuclear spin vectors of the atoms in apatient's body. The field is then disturbed and an image of the patientis read as the nuclei return to their equilibrium alignments. In thepresent invention, the protein binding agent can be linked todiamagnetic contrast agents, such as gadolinium, cobalt, nickel,manganese or copper complexes, to form conjugate diagnostic reagentsthat are imaged extracorporeally with an MRI system. Other imagingtechniques include plethysmography, thermography and ultrasonic scanning

In one embodiment, the protein binding agent such as an antibody can begenetically or chemically engineered to contain ^(99m)Tc binding sitesfor nuclear scintigraphy imaging. In vivo localized quantitative imagingis performed (SPECT imaging) can be carried out on the subject.

In one embodiment, the protein binding agent can be labeled withgadolinium or echogenic liposomes for magnetic resonance and abdomenultrasound imaging, respectively.

Methods and regents such as detectably labeled antibodies for in situimaging are been described and are well known in the art, for example,U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,899,675; 4,660,563; 4,877,599; 4,647,445; 5,605,831;6,716,410; U.S. Patent Application Nos. 2009/0016965 and 20070059775.Additional methods and regents for in situ imaging are described in JHTseng, 2001, Abdominal Imaging, 26: 171-177; Liu, Qing-Yu, 2009,Abdominal Imaging, in press; DA Scheinberg, et al., 1982, Science,215:1511-1513; and W. J. McBride, et al., 2009, J. Nucl. Med. 50,991-998. These are all incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

Conjugation of Protein Binding Agent, e.g. Antibody to EchogenicLiposomes for Ultrasound Imaging

Antibody-conjugated echogenic liposomes have been developed forsite-specific intravascular (30 MHz) and transvascular (15 MHz) imageenhancement. As examples, anti-fibrinogen and anti-intercellularadhesion molecule-1 (anti-ICAM-1) antibodies have been conjugated toacoustically reflective liposomes and images obtained in animal modelsof thrombi and atherosclerotic lesions. These acoustic liposomes consistof a 60:8:2:30 molar mixture ofphosphatidylcholine:phosphatidyl-ethanolamine:phosphatidylglycerol:cholesterol and are prepared by a dehydration/rehydration mixture. Theyare multilamellar with well separated lipid bilayers and internalvesicles which confers echogenicity. Their mean size is ˜800 nm asmeasured by quasielastic light scattering. These liposomes are stable incirculation, do not trap gas, pass through pulmonary capillaries andretain their properties at 37° C., even after conjugation withantibodies. Antibodies are modified by the addition of cysteines to theC- or N-terminus of the protein and conjugated to liposomes. A 12 MHzimaging catheter (Acuson) is used for imaging (resolution <1 mm). Theantibodies are thiolated with N-succinimidyl-3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionate, reduced, and conjugated with the liposomes by creating athioether linkage between the antibody and phospholipid. The conjugatedantibodies are stable and have a long shelf half-life. Imaging is byultrasound.

Gadolinium(Gd3)-Labeled Protein Binding Agent, e.g. scFv Antibodies(MAbs)

An alternative imaging method that provides enhanced resolution (<0.5mm), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is using Gd3-labeling proteinbinding agent as a contrast agent. MRI has the advantages of rapidacquisition, increased resolution, and absence of radioactivity However,because free Gd3 as a contrast agent is toxic, it is used in clinicalMRI imaging bound to diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA).Precedent exists for conjugating Gd3 to MAbs by reactingcyclic-diaminetriaminepentaacetic acid anhydride (c-DTPA) with the MAb.Polylysine-DTPA-Gd3-coupled antibodies have been used for tumour imagingwith up to 30 Gd3 ions conjugated without significantly affectingantigen affinity. Previous studies using Gd3-labeled MAbs have eitherdirectly bound Gd3 to available NH₂ groups or chemically conjugatedpolylysine. The natural site for coupling DTPA is limited in scFv(single chain antibody) molecules. Therefore, genetic fusion of severalclusters of polylysine groups (6-30 in length) to the N-terminal orC-terminal of scFv MAb can be used and this fusion can be reacted withc-DTPA. Although other amino groups may potentially react, theavailability of polylysine in the tail of the molecule should allowpreferential site-directed labeling. The bioengineering of thepolylysine site was done by PCR using primers encoding six lysineresidues and restriction site for cloning at both 5′ and 3′ ends.

Imaging with ^(99m)Tc-Labeled Protein Binding Agent, e.g. Antibody

^(99m)Tc-labeling of oxidation specific antibodies has been previouslydescribed (Tsimikas et al., 1999, J Nucl Cardiol. 1999; 6:41-53).^(99m)Tc-protein binding agent specific for the biomarkers describedherein can be intravenously injected into the patient and is analyzedfor the pharmacokinetics, organ distribution and appendix uptake. For invivo imaging, 1-5 mCi are intravenously injected in the patient andimaging can be performed with a dual detector ADAC vertex model gammacamera set to a 20% window for ^(99m)Tc (VXUR collimator) equipped withADAC Pegasys™ computer software. In vivo images planar (anterior,posterior and 45° oblique positions) and SPECT can be acquired on a256×256×12 matrix for a minimum of 1×10⁶ counts at 10 minutes postinjection. Repeat imaging can be performed for 3-500,000 counts atvarious time points based on the optimal target to background ratioderived from in vivo uptake data. Previous imaging studies using wholemonoclonal antibody have shown that whole monoclonal antibody often givea low signal to noise ratio due to the prolonged half-life of the^(99m)Tc-MAb in the circulation. The use of Fab, scFv, or smallerfragments can abrogate this problem under certain imaging conditions asthe Fabs and scFvs have a very short half lives (<30 minutes). When thesignal to noise ratio is not favorable, injections of MDA-LDL, Cu-OxLDL,or other appropriate antigen can be injected to clear the backgroundsignal.

Imaging with Gd3-Labeled Protein Binding Agent, e.g. Antibody

Labeling of Gd3 to an antibody-DTPA complex has been previouslydescribed (Lister-James, et al, 1996, J Nucl Med. 1996; 40:221-233; Wuet al, 1995, Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 1995; 15:529-533). Initialtesting by in vivo uptake assays can be carried out with 153 Gd-antibodyin mice and rabbits and the pharmacokinetics, biodistribution and aorticplaque uptake of antibody is determined. In vivo imaging can beperformed in rabbits with a 1.5 T GE MRI scanner with a small surfacecoil.

Computer Systems and Computer Readable Media to Assay AppendicitisBiomarkers in Urine Samples.

One aspect of the present invention relates to a system for analyzing aurine biological sample from a subject, where the system comprises: (a)a determination module configured to receive a urine biological sampleand to determine an appendicitis biomarker level information, whereinthe appendicitis biomarker level information comprises determination ofat least one appendicitis biomarker level, i.e. at the level or amountof an appendicitis biomarker, such as LRG, or any or a combination ofappendicitis biomarkers listed in Table 1; (b) a connection from thedetermination module to transmit the appendicitis biomarker levelinformation to an electronic computer, wherein the computer comprises astorage device, a comparison module and a display module; (c) thestorage device configured to store appendicitis biomarker levelinformation from the determination module; (d) the comparison moduleadapted to compare the appendicitis biomarker level information storedon the storage device with reference data, and to provide a comparisonresult, wherein the comparison result comprises; (i) a comparison of theappendicitis biomarker level in the urine biological sample with thereference appendicitis biomarker level, and (ii) a determination of theappendicitis biomarker level in the biological sample above or below athreshold level relative to the reference appendicitis biomarker level,wherein a appendicitis biomarker level above the threshold level forthat biomarker is indicative of acute appendicitis (i.e. a positive testresult); and wherein a appendicitis biomarker level below the thresholdlevel is indicative of absence of acute appendicitis (i.e. a negativetest result); and (e) the display module for displaying a content basedin part on the comparison result for the user, wherein the content is asignal indicative of the likelihood of a subject having acuteappendicitis (i.e. a positive test result) or unlikely to have acuteappendicitis (i.e. a negative test result).

Another aspect of the present invention relates to a computer readablemedium having computer readable instructions recorded thereon to definesoftware modules including a comparison module and a display module forimplementing a method on a computer, the method comprising: (a)comparing with the comparison module the data stored on a storage devicewith reference data to provide a comparison result, wherein thecomparison result is the appendicitis biomarker level information in theurine biological above a threshold level relative to a referenceappendicitis biomarker level for that biomarker tested which isindicative of acute appendicitis; and (b) displaying a content based inpart on the comparison result for the user, wherein the content is asignal indicative of acute appendicitis.

In some embodiments, the appendicitis biomarker threshold level which isused in the system, computer-readable medium and methods as disclosedherein that is indicative of acute appendicitis is at a level of atleast about two-fold (2×) above the control or reference appendicitisbiomarker level for that biomarker. For example, if the appendicitisbiomarker is LRG, if the level of LRG in the test urine sample from thesubject is at least about 2-fold above the reference LRG biomarkerlevel, it is indicative of a subject likely to have or be at risk ofacute appendicitis. In some embodiments a threshold level is at leastabout 3-fold, or at least about 4-fold, or at least about 5-fold, or atleast about 6-fold, or at least about 7-fold, or at least about 8-fold,or at least about 9-fold, or at least about 10-fold or more than 10-foldabove the reference level for that biomarker, and thus a the level ofthe appendicitis biomarker in the test urine sample above the thresholdlevel it is indicative of a subject likely to have or be at risk ofacute appendicitis.

In some embodiments, the system, computer-readable media and methods asdisclosed herein is used to measure an appendicitis biomarker level in abiological sample, where the appendicitis biomarker level is the levelof a polypeptide biomarker, for example any biomarker of Table 1 or ofany SEQ ID NOs 1-49. In some embodiments, the level of at least onebiomarker protein is measured by immuno assay, for example western blotanalysis or ELISA, or a highthrough-put protein detection method, forexample but are not limited to automated immunohistochemistry apparatus,for example, robotically automated immunohistochemistry apparatus whichin an automated system section the tissue or biological sample specimen,prepare slides, perform immunohistochemistry procedure and detectintensity of immunostaining, such as intensity of an antibody binding toa biomarker protein in the urine sample and produce output data.Examples of such automated immunohistochemistry apparatus arecommercially available, for example such Autostainers 360, 480, 720 andLabvision PT module machines from LabVision Corporation, which aredisclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,435,383; 6,998,270; 6,746,851, 6,735,531;6,349,264; and 5,839; 091 which are incorporated herein in theirentirety by reference. Other commercially available automatedimmunohistochemistry instruments are also encompassed for use in thepresent invention, for example, but not are limited BOND™ AutomatedImmunohistochemistry & In Situ Hybridization System, Automate slideloader from GTI vision. Automated analysis of immunohistochemistry canbe performed by commercially available systems such as, for example, IHCScorer and Path EX, which can be combined with the Applied spectralImages (ASI) CytoLab view, also available from GTI vision or AppliedSpectral Imaging (ASI) which can all be integrated into data sharingsystems such as, for example, Laboratory Information System (LIS), whichincorporates Picture Archive Communication System (PACS), also availablefrom Applied Spectral Imaging (ASI) (see world-wide-web:spectral-imaging.com). Other a determination module can be an automatedimmunohistochemistry systems such as NexES® automatedimmunohistochemistry (IHC) slide staining system or BenchMark® LTautomated IHC instrument from Ventana Discovery SA, which can becombined with VIAS™ image analysis system also available VentanaDiscovery. BioGenex Super Sensitive MultiLink® Detection Systems, ineither manual or automated protocols can also be used as the detectionmodule, preferably using the BioGenex Automated Staining Systems. Suchsystems can be combined with a BioGenex automated staining systems, thei6000™ (and its predecessor, the OptiMax® Plus), which is geared for theClinical Diagnostics lab, and the GenoMx 6000™, for Drug Discovery labs.Both systems BioGenex systems perform “All-in-One, All-at-Once”functions for cell and tissue testing, such as Immunohistochemistry(IHC) and In Situ Hybridization (ISH).

As an example, a determination module used in the system,computer-readable media and methods as disclosed herein for determiningappendicitis biomarker level measures the level of at least oneappendicitis biomarker polypeptide, for instance the determinationmodule is configured to detect the total level (i.e. amount) of at leastone appendicitis biomarker polypeptide of Table 1 using any knownsystems for automated protein expression analysis, including forexample, but not limited Mass Spectrometry systems including MALDI-TOF,or Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization—Time of Flight systems;SELDI-TOF-MS ProteinChip array profiling systems, e.g. Machines withCiphergen Protein Biology System II™ software; systems for analyzinggene expression data (see for example U.S. 2003/0194711); systems forarray based expression analysis, for example HT array systems andcartridge array systems available from Affymetrix (Santa Clara, Calif.95051) AutoLoader, Complete GeneChip® Instrument System, FluidicsStation 450, Hybridization Oven 645, QC Toolbox Software Kit, Scanner3000 7G, Scanner 3000 7G plus Targeted Genotyping System, Scanner 30007G Whole-Genome Association System, GeneTitan™ Instrument, GeneChip®Array Station, HT Array; an automated ELISA system (e.g. DSX® or DK®form Dynax, Chantilly, Va. or the ENEASYSTEM III®, Triturus®, The Mago®Plus); Densitometers (e.g. X-Rite-508-Spectro Densitometer®, The HYRYS™2 densitometer); automated Fluorescence in situ hybridization systems(see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,540); 2D gel imaging systemscoupled with 2-D imaging software; microplate readers; Fluorescenceactivated cell sorters (FACS) (e.g. Flow Cytometer FACSVantage SE,Becton Dickinson); and radio isotope analyzers (e.g. scintillationcounters).

In some embodiments, the appendicitis biomarker level is theappendicitis biomarker polypeptide level of any biomarker listed inTable 1. In some embodiments, the appendicitis biomarker level is LRGpolypeptide (SEQ ID NO:1). In some embodiments, the appendicitisbiomarker level is ORM (SEQ ID NO:3) or MASP2 (SEQ ID NO:5).

In some embodiments, the system, computer-readable media and methods asdisclosed herein is used to measure at least one appendicitis biomarkerlevel in the biological sample such as a urine sample.

In some embodiments, the system, computer-readable media and methods asdisclosed herein is used to measure at least one appendicitis biomarkerlevel in urine biological sample which is obtained from a mammaliansubject, for example a human subject. In some embodiments, the subjecthas at least one symptom of appendicitis as discussed herein.

In some embodiments, the system, computer-readable media and methods asdisclosed herein is used to measure at least one appendicitis biomarkerlevel in biological sample obtained from a subject who has experiencedone or more symptoms of acute appendicitis include pain startingcentrally (periumbilical) before localizing to the right iliac fossa(the lower right side of the abdomen); loss of appetite and fever;nausea or vomiting; the feeling of drowsiness; the feeling of generalbad health; pain beginning and staying in the right iliac fossa,diarrhea and a more prolonged, smoldering course; increased frequency ofurination; marked retching; tenesmus or “downward urge” (the feelingthat a bowel movement will relieve discomfort); positive Rovsing's sign,Psoas sign, and/or Obturator sign.

In some embodiments, the system, computer-readable media and methods asdisclosed herein comprises a determination module which has beenconfigured to determine the level of an additional agent in thebiological sample, for example, albumin.

In some embodiments, the system, computer-readable media and methods asdisclosed herein is used to measure at least one appendicitis biomarkerlevel in a urine biological sample to indicate if a subject has, or isat risk of acute appendicitis. Accordingly, in some embodiments, thesystem, computer-readable media and methods as disclosed herein is usedto identify if a subject is has acute appendicitis.

In some embodiments, the system, computer-readable media and methods asdisclosed herein is used to measure at least one appendicitis biomarkerlevel in a urine biological sample obtained from a subject.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method of treatinga subject identified to have acute appendicitis comprising; (a)determining if the subject has, or is likely to have or is at risk ofhaving acute appendicitis by measuring at least one appendicitisbiomarker level in a urine sample obtained from the subject, and if highlevels (e.g. at least about 2-fold above a reference level for themeasured biomarker) of the appendicitis biomarker protein exists in theurine biological sample from the subject, it indicates that the subjectis likely to have acute appendicitis, and (b) administering anappropriate treatment to a subject determined to likely have acuteappendicitis, where an appropriate treatment can be determined by anordinary physician, for example by surgical resection of the appendix(i.e. appendectomy) if the appendicitis is severe, or antibiotics if theappendicitis is not severe.

In one embodiment, the method is performed on a subject who hasexperienced or exhibited symptoms of acute appendicitis or one or moreof the following symptoms or risk factors: pain starting centrally(periumbilical) before localizing to the right iliac fossa (the lowerright side of the abdomen); loss of appetite and fever; nausea orvomiting; the feeling of drowsiness; the feeling of general bad health;pain beginning and staying in the right iliac fossa, diarrhea and a moreprolonged, smoldering course; increased frequency of urination; markedretching; tenesmus or “downward urge” (the feeling that a bowel movementwill relieve discomfort); positive Rovsing's sign, Psoas sign, and/orObturator sign.

In one embodiment, the diagnostic tool or device is used to test a urinesample from a subject who has experienced or exhibited symptoms of acuteappendicitis or one or more of the following symptoms or risk factors:pain starting centrally (periumbilical) before localizing to the rightiliac fossa (the lower right side of the abdomen); loss of appetite andfever; nausea or vomiting; the feeling of drowsiness; the feeling ofgeneral bad health; pain beginning and staying in the right iliac fossa,diarrhea and a more prolonged, smoldering course; increased frequency ofurination; marked retching; tenesmus or “downward urge” (the feelingthat a bowel movement will relieve discomfort); positive Rovsing's sign,Psoas sign, and/or Obturator sign.

The device or methods as disclosed herein can be used to assess theurine sample from a subject at one or more indicated times followingspecific experienced symptoms of the subject, such as initial symptoms(e.g., at about 1 hour, 2-5 hours, 10 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 36hours, 48 hours, and/or 72 hours.

It should be understood that this invention is not limited to theparticular methodology, protocols, and reagents, etc., described hereinand as such may vary. The terminology used herein is for the purpose ofdescribing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to limit thescope of the present invention, which is defined solely by the claims.

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

Unless otherwise explained, all technical and scientific terms usedherein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinaryskill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. Definitions of commonterms in urology, endocrinology, biochemistry and molecular biology canbe found in The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, 18th Edition,published by Merck Research Laboratories, 2006 (ISBN 0-911910-18-2);Robert S. Porter et al. (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Molecular Biology,published by Blackwell Science Ltd., 1994 (ISBN 0-632-02182-9); andRobert A. Meyers (ed.), Molecular Biology and Biotechnology: aComprehensive Desk Reference, published by VCH Publishers, Inc., 1995(ISBN 1-56081-569-8); The ELISA guidebook (Methods in Molecular Biology149) by Crowther J. R. (2000); Fundamentals of RIA and Other LigandAssays by Jeffrey Travis, 1979, Scientific Newsletters; and Immunologyby Werner Luttmann, published by Elsevier, 2006.

Unless otherwise stated, the present invention was performed usingstandard procedures, as described, for example in Maniatis et al.,Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring Harbor LaboratoryPress, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., USA (1982); Sambrook et al., MolecularCloning: A Laboratory Manual (2 ed.), Cold Spring Harbor LaboratoryPress, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., USA (1989); Davis et al., Basic Methodsin Molecular Biology, Elsevier Science Publishing, Inc., New York, USA(1986); A. R. Kimmerl Eds., Academic Press Inc., San Diego, USA (1987))and Current Protocols in Immunology (CPI) (John E. Coligan, et. al., ed.John Wiley and Sons, Inc.), which are all incorporated by referenceherein in their entireties.

As used herein, the term “biomarker” is a biological characteristic thatis measured and evaluated objectively as an indicator of normalbiological or pathogenic processes (a diagnostic biomarker), or apharmacological response to therapeutic intervention (a therapeuticbiomarker). A “biomarker” can be any patient parameter that can bemeasured, for example, mRNA expression profiles, proteomic signatures,protein, hormone or lipid levels, imaging methods or electrical signals.Typically, the term “biomarker” as used herein refers to a protein,polypeptide or peptide in the sample.

The term “protein binding agent” is used interchangeably herein with“protein binding molecule” or protein binding moiety” and refers to anyentity which has specific affinity for a protein. The term“protein-binding molecule” also includes antibody-based binding moietiesand antibodies and includes immunoglobulin molecules and immunologicallyactive determinants of immunoglobulin molecules, e.g., molecules thatcontain an antigen binding site which specifically binds (immunoreactswith) to the Psap proteins. The term “antibody-based binding moiety” isintended to include whole antibodies, e.g., of any isotype (IgG, IgA,IgM, IgE, etc), and includes fragments thereof which are alsospecifically reactive with the Psap proteins. Antibodies can befragmented using conventional techniques. Thus, the term includessegments of proteolytically-cleaved or recombinantly-prepared portionsof an antibody molecule that are capable of selectively reacting with acertain protein. Non limiting examples of such proteolytic and/orrecombinant fragments include Fab, F(ab′)2, Fab′, Fv, dAbs and singlechain antibodies (scFv) containing a VL and VH domain joined by apeptide linker. The scFv's can be covalently or non-covalently linked toform antibodies having two or more binding sites. Thus, “antibody-basebinding moiety” includes polyclonal, monoclonal, or other purifiedpreparations of antibodies and recombinant antibodies. The term“antibody-base binding moiety” is further intended to include humanizedantibodies, bispecific antibodies, and chimeric molecules having atleast one antigen binding determinant derived from an antibody molecule.In a preferred embodiment, the antibody-based binding moiety detectablylabeled. In some embodiments, a “protein-binding agent” is a co-factoror binding protein that interacts with the appendicitis biomarkerprotein to be measured, for example a co-factor or binding protein orligand to the appendicitis biomarker protein.

The term “labeled antibody”, as used herein, includes antibodies thatare labeled by a detectable means and include, but are not limited to,antibodies that are enzymatically, radioactively, fluorescently, andchemiluminescently labeled. Antibodies can also be labeled with adetectable tag, such as c-Myc, HA, VSV-G, HSV, FLAG, V5, or HIS. Thedetection and quantification of a appendicitis biomarker protein presentin a urine samples correlate to the intensity of the signal emitted fromthe detectably labeled antibody.

The term “specific affinity” or “specifically binds” or “specificbinding” are used interchangeably herein refers to an entity such as aprotein-binding molecule or antibody that recognizes and binds a desiredpolypeptide (e.g. a specific appendicitis biomarker protein) but thatdoes not substantially recognize and bind other molecules in the sample,i.e. a urine sample. In some embodiments, the term “specifically binds”refers to binding with a K_(d) of 10 micromolar or less, preferably 1micromolar or less, more preferably 100 nM or less, 10 nM or less, or 1nM or less.

The term “antibody” is meant to be an immunoglobulin protein that iscapable of binding an antigen. Antibody as used herein is meant toinclude antibody fragments, e.g. F(ab′)₂, Fab′, Fab, capable of bindingthe antigen or antigenic fragment of interest.

The term “humanized antibody” is used herein to describe completeantibody molecules, i.e. composed of two complete light chains and twocomplete heavy chains, as well as antibodies consisting only of antibodyfragments, e.g. Fab, Fab′, F(ab′)₂, and Fv, wherein the CDRs are derivedfrom a non-human source and the remaining portion of the Ig molecule orfragment thereof is derived from a human antibody, preferably producedfrom a nucleic acid sequence encoding a human antibody.

The terms “human antibody” and “humanized antibody” are used herein todescribe an antibody of which all portions or majority (at least 80%) ofthe antibody molecule are derived from a nucleic acid sequence encodinga human antibody. Such human antibodies are most desirable for use inantibody therapies; as such antibodies would elicit little or no immuneresponse in the human subject.

The term “chimeric antibody” is used herein to describe an antibodymolecule as well as antibody fragments, as described above in thedefinition of the term “humanized antibody.” The term “chimericantibody” encompasses humanized antibodies. Chimeric antibodies have atleast one portion of a heavy or light chain amino acid sequence derivedfrom a first mammalian species and another portion of the heavy or lightchain amino acid sequence derived from a second, different mammalianspecies. In some embodiments, a variable region is derived from anon-human mammalian species and the constant region is derived from ahuman species. Specifically, the chimeric antibody is preferablyproduced from a nucleotide sequence from a non-human mammal encoding avariable region and a nucleotide sequence from a human encoding aconstant region of an antibody.

In the context of this invention, the term “probe” refers to a moleculewhich can detectably distinguish between target molecules differing instructure. Detection can be accomplished in a variety of different waysdepending on the type of probe used and the type of target molecule,thus, for example, detection may be based on discrimination of activitylevels of the target molecule, but preferably is based on detection ofspecific binding. Examples of such specific binding include antibodybinding and nucleic acid probe hybridization. Thus, for example, probescan include enzyme substrates, antibodies and antibody fragments, andpreferably nucleic acid hybridization probes.

The term “label” refers to a composition capable of producing adetectable signal indicative of the presence of the targetpolynucleotide in an assay sample. Suitable labels includeradioisotopes, nucleotide chromophores, enzymes, substrates, fluorescentmolecules, chemiluminescent moieties, magnetic particles, bioluminescentmoieties, and the like. As such, a label is any composition detectableby spectroscopic, photochemical, biochemical, immunochemical,electrical, optical or chemical means.

The term “agent” as used herein refers to a chemical entity orbiological product, or combination of chemical entities or biologicalproducts. The chemical entity or biological product is preferably, butnot necessarily a low molecular weight compound, but may also be alarger compound, for example, an oligomer of nucleic acids, amino acids,or carbohydrates including without limitation proteins,oligonucleotides, ribozymes, DNAzymes, glycoproteins, siRNAs,lipoproteins, aptamers, and modifications and combinations thereof. Theterm “agent” refers to any entity selected from a group comprising;chemicals; small molecules; nucleic acid sequences; nucleic acidanalogues; proteins; peptides; aptamers; antibodies; or fragmentsthereof. A nucleic acid sequence may be RNA or DNA, and may be single ordouble stranded, and can be selected from a group comprising; nucleicacid encoding a protein of interest, oligonucleotides, nucleic acidanalogues, for example peptide-nucleic acid (PNA), pseudo-complementaryPNA (pc-PNA), locked nucleic acid (LNA), etc. Such nucleic acidsequences include, for example, but not limited to, nucleic acidsequence encoding proteins, for example that act as transcriptionalrepressors, antisense molecules, ribozymes, small inhibitory nucleicacid sequences, for example but not limited to RNAi, shRNAi, siRNA,micro RNAi (mRNAi), antisense oligonucleotides etc. A protein and/orpeptide agent can be any protein of interest, for example, but notlimited to; mutated proteins; therapeutic proteins; truncated proteins,wherein the protein is normally absent or expressed at lower levels inthe cell. Proteins can also be selected from a group comprising; mutatedproteins, genetically engineered proteins, peptides, synthetic peptides,recombinant proteins, chimeric proteins, antibodies, midibodies,tribodies, humanized proteins, humanized antibodies, chimericantibodies, modified proteins and fragments thereof. In someembodiments, the agent is any chemical, entity or moiety, includingwithout limitation synthetic and naturally-occurring non-proteinaceousentities. In certain embodiments the agent is a small molecule having achemical moiety. For example, chemical moieties included unsubstitutedor substituted alkyl, aromatic, or heterocyclyl moieties includingmacrolides, leptomycins and related natural products or analoguesthereof. Agents can be known to have a desired activity and/or property,or can be selected from a library of diverse compounds.

The term “support” refers to conventional supports such as beads,particles, dipsticks, fibers, filters, membranes and silane or silicatesupports such as glass slides.

The terms “reduced” or “reduce” or “decrease” as used herein generallymeans a decrease by a statistically significant amount relative to areference. However, for avoidance of doubt, “reduced” meansstatistically significant decrease of at least 10% as compared to areference level, for example a decrease by at least 20%, at least 30%,at least 40%, at least t 50%, or least 60%, or least 70%, or least 80%,at least 90% or more, up to and including a 100% decrease (i.e. absentlevel as compared to a reference sample), or any decrease between10-100% as compared to a reference level, as that term is definedherein.

The term “low” as used herein generally means lower by a staticallysignificant amount; for the avoidance of doubt, “low” means astatistically significant value at least 10% lower than a referencelevel, for example a value at least 20% lower than a reference level, atleast 30% lower than a reference level, at least 40% lower than areference level, at least 50% lower than a reference level, at least 60%lower than a reference level, at least 70% lower than a reference level,at least 80% lower than a reference level, at least 90% lower than areference level, up to and including 100% lower than a reference level(i.e. absent level as compared to a reference sample).

The terms “increased” or “increase” as used herein generally mean anincrease by a statically significant amount; for the avoidance of doubt,“increased” means a statistically significant increase of at least 10%as compared to a reference level, including an increase of at least 20%,at least 30%, at least 40%, at least 50%, at least 60%, at least 70%, atleast 80%, at least 90%, at least 100% or more, including, for exampleat least 2-fold, at least 3-fold, at least 4-fold, at least 5-fold, atleast 10-fold increase or greater as compared to a reference level, asthat term is defined herein.

The term “high” as used herein generally means a higher by a staticallysignificant amount relative to a reference; for the avoidance of doubt,“high” means a statistically significant value at least 10% higher thana reference level, for example at least 20% higher, at least 30% higher,at least 40% higher, at least 50% higher, at least 60% higher, at least70% higher, at least 80% higher, at least 90% higher, at least 100%higher, at least 2-fold higher, at least 3-fold higher, at least 4-foldhigher, at least 5-fold higher, at least 10-fold higher or more, ascompared to a reference level.

As used herein, the terms “treat,” “treating,” and “treatment” refer tothe alleviation or measurable lessening of one or more symptoms ormeasurable markers of a disease or disorder; while not intending to belimited to such, disease or disorders of particular interest includeischemic or ischemia/reperfusion injury and diabetes. Measurablelessening includes any statistically significant decline in a measurablemarker or symptom.

As used herein, the terms “prevent,” “preventing” and “prevention” referto the avoidance or delay in manifestation of one or more symptoms ormeasurable markers of a disease or disorder. A delay in themanifestation of a symptom or marker is a delay relative to the time atwhich such symptom or marker manifests in a control or untreated subjectwith a similar likelihood or susceptibility of developing the disease ordisorder. The terms “prevent,” “preventing” and “prevention” include notonly the complete avoidance or prevention of symptoms or markers, butalso a reduced severity or degree of any one of those symptoms ormarkers, relative to those symptoms or markers arising in a control ornon-treated individual with a similar likelihood or susceptibility ofdeveloping the disease or disorder, or relative to symptoms or markerslikely to arise based on historical or statistical measures ofpopulations affected by the disease or disorder. By “reduced severity”is meant at least a 10% reduction in the severity or degree of a symptomor measurable disease marker, relative to a control or reference, e.g.,at least 15%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 99% or even100% (i.e., no symptoms or measurable markers).

As used herein the term “reference level” is used interchangeably hereinwith “reference value” and refers to a level in a particularappendicitis biomarker which provides a baseline against which tocompare the measured appendicitis biomarker protein level from the testurine biological sample. As an illustrative example, the reference levelfor a particular appendicitis biomarker protein can be calculated as theaverage level of that appendicitis biomarker protein level from aplurality of urine biological samples obtained from a plurality ofsubjects with similar demographics (i.e. age, gender, weight, ethnicityand the like) which do not have appendicitis. As another illustrativeexample only, a reference level for a particular appendicitis biomarkerprotein can be from a plurality of subjects that do not haveappendicitis. As another illustrative example only, a reference levelfor a particular appendicitis biomarker protein can be from the samesubject taken at an earlier timepoint. Typically, a reference level isnormalized to “0” value, and an increase, for example at least about a2-fold increase in the particular appendicitis biomarker proteinmeasured by the determination module or in the system and methods asdisclosed herein relative to the reference level would indicate asubject would likely have appendicitis (i.e. a positive appendicitistest result). A reference appendicitis biomarker level can be from anindividual not affected by a given pathology (i.e. not affected withappendicitis or having a symptom of appendicitis), or, alternatively,from the same individual being tested, where the urine for the referenceappendicitis biomarker level was taken at an at least one earlier timepoint (i.e. t₀, t₁, t₂ etc) when the subject did not exhibit a symptomof appendicitis. A reference appendicitis biomarker level can also be apooled sample, taken from a plurality of individuals not affected byappendicitis. Where appropriate, a reference appendicitis biomarkerlevel can also be a fixed reference level of an appendicitis biomarkerlevel, where a test appendicitis biomarker level above the fixedreference level (i.e. at least about 2-fold above the fixed referencelevel) identifies a subject likely to have appendicitis. It is preferredthat a reference sample be from an individual or group of individuals ofsimilar characteristics to the tested individual, e.g., that thereference be taken from individuals of similar age, gender, rave orethnic background, etc. In some embodiments, other reference levels canalso be used, for example a positive reference appendicitis biomarkerlevel can be used as a positive control for a subject having a risk ofacute appendicitis. Typically, where a positive reference level is used,if the appendicitis biomarker level in the test urine biological sampleis substantially the same or close in the value of the positivereference appendicitis biomarker level, it would indicate a positivetest result for acute appendicitis.

The term “computer” can refer to any non-human apparatus that is capableof accepting a structured input, processing the structured inputaccording to prescribed rules, and producing results of the processingas output. Examples of a computer include: a computer; a general purposecomputer; a supercomputer; a mainframe; a super mini-computer; amini-computer; a workstation; a micro-computer; a server; an interactivetelevision; a hybrid combination of a computer and an interactivetelevision; and application-specific hardware to emulate a computerand/or software. A computer can have a single processor or multipleprocessors, which can operate in parallel and/or not in parallel. Acomputer also refers to two or more computers connected together via anetwork for transmitting or receiving information between the computers.An example of such a computer includes a distributed computer system forprocessing information via computers linked by a network.

The term “computer-readable medium” may refer to any storage device usedfor storing data accessible by a computer, as well as any other meansfor providing access to data by a computer. Examples of astorage-device-type computer-readable medium include: a magnetic harddisk; a floppy disk; an optical disk, such as a CD-ROM and a DVD; amagnetic tape; a memory chip.

The term “software” can refer to prescribed rules to operate a computer.Examples of software include: software; code segments; instructions;computer programs; and programmed logic.

The term a “computer system” may refer to a system having a computer,where the computer comprises a computer-readable medium embodyingsoftware to operate the computer.

The term “proteomics” may refer to the study of the expression,structure, and function of proteins within cells, including the way theywork and interact with each other, providing different information thangenomic analysis of gene expression.

As used herein the term “consisting essentially of” refers to thoseelements required for a given embodiment. The term permits the presenceof elements that do not materially affect the basic and novel orfunctional characteristic(s) of that embodiment of the invention.

Other than in the operating examples, or where otherwise indicated, allnumbers expressing quantities of ingredients or reaction conditions usedherein should be understood as modified in all instances by the term“about.” The term “about” when used in connection with percentages maymean±1%.

The singular terms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unlesscontext clearly indicates otherwise. Similarly, the word “or” isintended to include “and” unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It is further to be understood that all base sizes or aminoacid sizes, and all molecular weight or molecular mass values, given fornucleic acids or polypeptides are approximate, and are provided fordescription. Although methods and materials similar or equivalent tothose described herein can be used in the practice or testing of thisdisclosure, suitable methods and materials are described below. Theabbreviation, “e.g.” is derived from the Latin exempli gratia, and isused herein to indicate a non-limiting example. Thus, the abbreviation“e.g.” is synonymous with the term “for example.”

As used herein, the term “comprising” means that other elements can alsobe present in addition to the defined elements presented, whetheressential or not. The use of “comprising” indicates inclusion ratherthan limitation.

As used herein the term “consisting essentially of” refers to thoseelements required for a given embodiment. The term permits the presenceof elements that do not materially affect the basic and novel orfunctional characteristic(s) of that embodiment of the invention.

The term “consisting of” refers to kits and methods thereof as describedherein, which are exclusive of any element not recited in thatdescription of the embodiment.

All patents and other publications identified are expressly incorporatedherein by reference for the purpose of describing and disclosing, forexample, the methodologies described in such publications that might beused in connection with the present invention. These publications areprovided solely for their disclosure prior to the filing date of thepresent application. Nothing in this regard should be construed as anadmission that the inventors are not entitled to antedate suchdisclosure by virtue of prior invention or for any other reason. Allstatements as to the date or representation as to the contents of thesedocuments is based on the information available to the applicants anddoes not constitute any admission as to the correctness of the dates orcontents of these documents.

The present invention can be defined by any of the followingalphabetized paragraphs:

-   -   [A] A device for detecting at least one appendicitis biomarker        protein in a urine sample from a subject to identify if the        subject is likely to have acute appendicitis, the device        comprising: (a) at least one protein-binding agent which        specifically binds to at least one appendicitis biomarker        protein selected from the group of: leucine α-2 glycoprotein        (LRG), mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2), α-1-acid        glycoprotein 1 (ORM); and (b) at least one solid support for the        at least one protein binding-agent in (a), wherein the        protein-binding agent is deposited on the solid support.    -   [B] The device of paragraph [A], wherein the protein-binding        agent deposited on the solid support specifically binds the        polypeptide of leucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG) of SEQ ID NO: 1.    -   [C] The device of paragraph [A], wherein the protein-binding        agent deposited on the solid support specifically binds to the        polypeptide of α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM) of SEQ ID NO: 3.    -   [D] The device of paragraph [A], wherein the protein-binding        agent deposited on the solid support specifically binds to the        polypeptide of mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2)        of SEQ ID NO: 5.    -   [E] The device of paragraph [A], wherein the device further        comprises at least one additional different protein-binding        agent deposited on the solid support, wherein the additional        protein-binding agent specifically binds to an appendicitis        biomarker protein selected from the group consisting of:        leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8 (calgranulin);        α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM); lasminogen (PLG); mannan-binding        lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1);        apolipoprotein D (ApoD); α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3).    -   [F] The device of paragraph [A], wherein the device further        comprises at least one additional different protein-binding        agent deposited on the solid support, wherein the additional        protein-binding agent specifically binds to an appendicitis        biomarker protein selected from the group consisting of:        Adipocyte specific adhesion molecule; AMBP; Amyloid-like protein        2; Angiotensin converting enzyme 2; BAZ1B; Carbonic anhydrase 1;        CD14; chromogranin A; FBLN7; FXR2; Hemoglobin a; Hemoglobin 13;        Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein; Inter-α-trypsin        inhibitor; Lipopolysaccharide binding protein; Lymphatic vessel        endothelial hyaluronan acid receptor 1; MLKL; Nicastrin; Novel        protein (Accession No: IPI00550644); PDZK1 interacting protein        1; PRIC285; Prostaglandin-H2 D-isomerase; Rcl; S100-A9; Serum        amyloid A protein; SLC13A3; SLC2A1; SLC2A2; SLC4A1; SLC9A3;        SORBS1; SPRX2; Supervillin; TGFbeta2R; TTYH3; VA0D1; Vascular        adhesion molecule 1; Versican; VIP36; α-1-acid glycoprotein 2;        and 13-1,3-galactosyltransferase.    -   [G] The device of paragraph [A], wherein the solid support is in        the format of a dipstick, microfluidic chip or a cartridge.    -   [H] The device of any of paragraphs [A] to [G], wherein the        protein-binding agent is an antibody, antibody fragment,        aptamer, small molecule or variant thereof    -   [I] The device of any of paragraphs [A] to [H], wherein the        subject is a human subject.    -   [J] The device of any of paragraphs [A] to [I], wherein the        subject is a subject with at least one symptom of appendicitis.    -   [K] The device of any of the paragraphs [A] to [J], wherein the        protein-binding agent deposited on the device specifically binds        to the appendicitis biomarker protein when the level of the        appendicitis biomarker protein is at least 2-fold above a        reference level for that biomarker protein.    -   [L] A device of paragraph [K], wherein the reference level is an        average level of the appendicitis biomarker protein in a        plurality of urine samples from a population of healthy humans        not having acute appendicitis.    -   [M] Use of the device of any of paragraphs [A] to [L] to        identify if a subject to have acute appendicitis, wherein if at        least one appendicitis biomarker protein specifically binds to        at least one protein-binding agent, the subject is likely to        have acute appendicitis.    -   [N] A kit comprising: (a) a device according to any of        paragraphs [A] to [L]; and (b) a first agent, wherein the first        agent produces a detectable signal in the presence of a        protein-binding agent which deposited on the device is        specifically bound to an appendicitis biomarker protein.    -   [O] The kit of paragraph [N], further comprising a second agent,        wherein the second agent produces a different detectable signal        in the presence of a second protein-binding agent deposited on        the device which is specifically bound to a second appendicitis        biomarker protein.    -   [P] A method to identify the likelihood of a subject to have        acute appendicitis comprising: (a) measuring the level of at        least one appendicitis biomarker protein selected from the group        listed in Table 1 in a urine sample from the human subject; (b)        comparing the level of the at least one appendicitis biomarker        protein measured in step (a) to a reference level for the        measured biomarker; wherein if the level of the measured        appendicitis biomarker protein is at least 2-fold increased than        the reference level for the appendicitis biomarker protein, it        identifies the subject is likely to have acute appendicitis.    -   [Q] The method of paragraph [P], further comprising determining        the level of albumin in the urine sample from the human subject.    -   [R] The method of any of paragraphs [P]-[Q], wherein the human        exhibits at least one symptom of acute appendicitis.    -   [S] The method of any of paragraphs [P]-[R], wherein the        measuring is completed with the use of an immunoassay or an        automated immunoassay.    -   [T] The method of any of paragraphs [P]-[S], wherein the        appendicitis biomarker protein is leucine α-2 glycoprotein        (LRG).    -   [U] The method of any of paragraph [P]-[T], wherein the        appendicitis biomarker is α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM).    -   [V] The method of any of paragraphs [P]-[U], wherein the        appendicitis biomarker protein is mannan-binding lectin serine        protease 2 (MASP2)    -   [W] The method of any of paragraphs [P]-[S], wherein the        appendicitis biomarker protein is selected from a group        consisting of leucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG), calgranulin A        (S100-A8), α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM), plasminogen (PLG),        mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2),        Zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1), α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3)        and apolipoprotein D (ApoD).    -   [X] The method of any of paragraphs [P]-[W], wherein the        reference level is a level of the appendicitis biomarker protein        in a urine sample of a healthy human not having acute        appendicitis.    -   [Y] The method of any of paragraphs [P]-[W], wherein the        reference level is an average level of the appendicitis        biomarker protein in a plurality of urine samples from a        population of healthy humans not having acute appendicitis.    -   [Z] The method of any of paragraphs [P]-[W], wherein the        reference level is a normalized level of the appendicitis        biomarker protein in a urine sample of a healthy human not        having acute appendicitis, wherein the normalization is        performed against the level of albumin in the urine sample of a        healthy human not having acute appendicitis.    -   [AA] The method of any of paragraphs [P]-[Z], wherein the urine        sample is collected in mid-stream.    -   [BB] The method of any of paragraph [P]-[Z], wherein the urine        sample is obtained by depositing the urine on to a test strip.

This invention is further illustrated by the following examples whichshould not be construed as limiting. The contents of all references,patents, and patent applications cited throughout this application, aswell as the figures and table are incorporated herein by reference.

Example 1 Urine Proteomics for Profiling of Human Disease Using HighAccuracy Mass Spectrometry

Knowledge of the biologically relevant components of human tissues hasenabled the invention of numerous clinically useful diagnostic tests, aswell as non-invasive ways of monitoring disease and its response totreatment. By virtue of tissue perfusion, blood serum is the most usefulmaterial for the discovery of such biomarkers in general. However, therelatively high concentration of serum proteins, as well as their widerange of concentrations, spanning at least 9 orders of magnitude, oftenlimit the study of serum biomarkers [1], though several recentapproaches are promising [2-4].

On the other hand, of the biological fluids amenable to routine clinicalevaluation, urine has the advantage of being frequently andnon-invasively available, abundant, and as a result of being a filtrateof serum, relatively simple in its composition. Consequently, detectionof urinary proteins has been used to identify markers of diseaseaffecting the kidney and the urogenital tract [5, 6], as well as distalorgans such as the brain and the intestine [7, 8]. However, the currentunderstanding of the human urinary proteome is incomplete, specificallywith respect to its overall composition and dynamics, not to mention theidentity of variable components that may dependent on physiologic stateand disease.

Several approaches have been used to characterize the human urinaryproteome. Initial studies using electrophoresis and immunoblotting wereable to identify tens of abundant and rare urinary proteins [9].Recently, Pisitkun and colleagues applied ultracentrifugation and liquidchromatography (LC)-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) to identify 295highly abundant unique proteins isolated from urinary exosomes [10]. Sunand colleagues identified 226 soluble proteins by using multidimensionalLC-MS/MS [11]. For an overview, see Pisitkun et al [12]. And mostrecently, Adachi and colleagues identified more than 1,500 uniqueproteins from ultrafiltered urine with a high degree of accuracy byusing a hybrid linear ion trap-Orbitrap (LTQ-Orbitrap) mass spectrometer[13].

The inventors herein extend the current characterization of the humanurinary proteome by extensively fractionating urine usingultracentrifugation, gel electrophoresis, ion exchange and reverse phasechromatography, effectively reducing mixture complexity while minimizingloss of material. By using high accuracy mass measurements of theLTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometer and LC-MS/MS of peptides generated fromsuch extensively fractionated specimens, the inventors identified over2,000 unique proteins in routinely collected individual urine specimens.The inventors provide assessments of the physical and tissue origins ofthe urinary proteome, as well as dependence of its detection oninstrumental and individual variables. Finally, by using text mining andmachine learning the inventors annotate the urinary proteome withrespect to 27 common and more than 500 rare human diseases, therebyestablishing a widely useful resource for the study of humanpathophysiology and biomarker discovery.

Materials and Methods for Example 1

Sample Collection.

Urine was collected as clean catch, mid stream specimens as part ofroutine evaluation of 12 children and young adults (ages 1-18 years,median 11) presenting with acute abdominal pain in the Children'sHospital Boston's Emergency Department. Upon obtaining informed consent,urine was frozen at −80° C. in 12 ml aliquots in polyethylene tubes. Allsamples were frozen within 6 hours of collection.

Reagents.

All reagents were of highest purity available and purchased from SigmaAldrich unless specified otherwise. HPLC-grade solvents were purchasedfrom Burdick and Jackson.

Urine Sedimentation.

Aliquots were thawed and centrifuged at 17,000 g for 15 minutes at 10°C. to sediment cellular debris. Absence of intact cells in the sedimentwas confirmed by light microscopy (data not shown). Subsequently,supernatant was centrifuged at 210,000 g for 60 minutes at 4° C. tosediment vesicles and high molecular weight complexes. Resultant pelletswere resuspended in 0.5 ml of 0.1× Laemmli buffer, concentrated 10-foldto 0.05 ml by vacuum centrifugation and stored at −80° C.

Cation Exchange Chromatography.

Supernatant remaining after ultracentrifugation was diluted 5-fold with0.1 M acetic acid, 10% (v/v) methanol, pH 2.7 (Buffer A) and incubatedwith 1 ml 50% (v/v) slurry of SP Sephadex (40-120 .im beads, Amersham)for 30 minutes at 4° C. to adsorb peptides that are <30 kDa molecularweight. Upon washing the beads twice with Buffer A, peptides were elutedby incubating the beads in 5 ml of 0.5 M ammonium acetate, 10% (v/v)methanol, pH 7 for 30 minutes at 4° C. Eluted peptides were purified byreverse phase chromatography by using PepClean C-18 spin columns,according to manufacturer's instructions (Pierce). Residual purificationsolvents were removed by vacuum centrifugation and small proteins andpeptides were resuspended in aqueous 50 mM ammonium bicarbonate buffer(pH 8.5).

Protein Precipitation.

Proteins remaining in solution after cation exchange were precipitatedby adding trichloroacetic acid to 20% (w/v), with deoxycholate to 0.02%(w/v) and Triton X-100 to 2.5% (v/v) as carriers, and incubating thesamples for 16 hours at 4° C. Precipitates were sedimented at 10,000 gfor 15 minutes at 4° C. and pellets were washed twice with neat acetoneat 4° C. with residual acetone removed by air drying. Dried pellets wereresuspended in 0.1 ml of 1× Laemmli buffer.

Gel Electrophoresis.

Laemmli buffer suspended fractions (from 17,000 g and 210,000 gcentrifugation, and from protein precipitation) were incubated at 70° C.for 15 min and separated by using NuPage 10% polyacrylamide Bis-Trisgels according to manufacturer's instructions (Invitrogen). Gels werewashed three times with distilled water, fixed with 5% (v/v) acetic acidin 50% (v/v) aqueous methanol for 15 minutes at room temperature, andstained with Coomassie. Each gel lane was cut into 6 fragments and eachfragment was cut into roughly 1 mm³ particles, which were subsequentlywashed 3 times with water and once with acetonitrile.

Protein Reduction, Alkylation and Trypsinization.

Protein containing gel particles and cation exchange purified proteinswere reduced with 10 mM dithiotreitol in 50 mM ammonium bicarbonate (pH8.5) at 56° C. for 45 minutes. They were subsequently alkylated with 55mM iodoacetamide in 50 mM ammonium bicarbonate (pH 8.5) at roomtemperature in darkness for 30 minutes. Gel particles were washed 3times with 50 mM ammonium bicarbonate (pH 8.5) prior to digestion.Alkylated peptides were purified by using PepClean C-18 spin columns asdescribed above to remove residual iodoacetamide from the cationexchange fraction. They were then digested with 12.5 ng/μl sequencinggrade bovine trypsin in 50 mM ammonium bicarbonate (pH 8.5) at 37° C.for 16 hours. Tryptic products were purified by using PepClean C-18 spincolumns as described above, vacuum centrifuged and stored at −80° C.

Mass Spectrometry and Liquid Chromatography.

Fractions containing tryptic peptides dissolved in aqueous 5% (v/v)acetonitrile and 0.1% (v/v) formic acid were resolved and ionized byusing nanoflow high performance liquid chromatography (nanoLC, Eksigent)coupled to the LTQ-Orbitrap hybrid mass spectrometer (ThermoScientific). Nanoflow chromatography and electrospray ionization wereaccomplished by using a 15 cm fused silica capillary with 100 mm innerdiameter, in-house packed with Magic C18 resin (200 Å, 5 μm, MichromBioresources). Peptide mixtures were injected onto the column at a flowrate of 1000 nl/min and resolved at 400 nl/min using 45 min linearacetonitrile gradients from 5 to 40% (v/v) aqueous acetonitrile in 0.1%(v/v) formic acid. Mass spectrometer was operated in data dependentacquisition mode, recording high accuracy and high resolution surveyOrbitrap spectra using the lock mass for internal mass calibration, withthe resolution of 60,000 and m/z range of 350-2000. Six most intensemultiply charged ions were sequentially fragmented by using collisioninduced dissociation, and spectra of their fragments were recorded inthe linear ion trap, with the dynamic exclusion of precursor ionsalready selected for MS/MS of 60 sec.

Spectral Processing and Peptide Identification.

Custom written software was used to extract the 200 most intense peaksfrom each MS/MS spectrum and to generate mascot generic format files.Peak lists were searched against the human International Protein Indexdatabase (version 3.36, at the World Wide Website of “ebi.ac.uk/IPI”) byusing Mascot (version 2.1.04; Matrix Science), allowing for variableformation of N-pyroglutamate, Asn and Gln deamidation, N-acetylation,and methionine oxidation, requiring full trypsin cleavage of identifiedpeptides with 2 possible miscleavages, and mass tolerances of 5 ppm and0.8 Da for the precursor and fragment ions, respectively. Searchesallowing semi-tryptic peptides did not affect overall search yields(data not shown). Spectral counts were calculated by summing the numberof fragment ion spectra assigned to each unique precursor peptide.

Data Analysis.

Assessment of identification accuracy was carried out by searching adecoy database composed of reversed protein sequences of the target IPIdatabase. Frequency of apparent false positive identifications wascalculated by merging individual target and decoy searches for eachsample. An initial estimate of the apparent false positive rate wasobtained by dividing the number of peptide identifications with a Mascotscore greater than the identity score obtained from the target search bythe number of peptide identifications with a score higher than theidentity score threshold extracted from the decoy search [37]. Onlyproteins identified on the basis of more than 2 peptides were includedin the comparison. Parsimonious protein grouping was performed byremapping all peptide identifications onto their corresponding proteinsas listed in the IPI. This step was necessary to generate a minimal,non-redundant list of proteins that explain all of the identifiedpeptides, while excluding proteins that could not be unambiguouslyunidentified. This parsimonious list of proteins was used forcomparisons of various samples at the protein level. For Gene Ontologyannotation, the inventors used GO slim terms version 1.8, accessed byusing GOfact (at the World Wide Website of “hupo.org.cn/GOfact”). Forannotation of tissue expression of detected proteins, the inventors usedversion 2 of the GNF gene expression atlas (at the World Wide Website of“expression.gnf.org”), accessed by using BioMart (at the World WideWebsite of “biomart.org”).

Disease Annotations.

The inventors linked proteins found in the urine proteome to publishedarticles that associate a protein with a human disease, as well articlesthat associate a disease with a protein. For the former, the inventorsderived sets of diseases from OMIM [38], MeSH (at the World Wide Websiteof “nlm.nih.gov/mesh/”), and a short list of common diseases of interestnot described in OMIM or MeSH (Additional Files, at the World WideWebsite of “childrenshospital.org/research/steenlab”). The inventorsextracted disease names from MeSH by selecting MeSH concepts withDescriptor Record Descriptor Class=1, and marked by SemanticTypeName‘Disease or Syndrome’. Synonym disease names were obtained from thecontent of Term or TermList elements for the main concept. For OMIM,documents matching an OMIM entry were obtained by searching Medline witha query of the form (Term1 OR Term2 . . . Termk), where Termk includethe 100 lowest frequency terms in a given OMIM entry. These OMIM diseasequeries were executed by using Twease with the BM25EC scorer againstabstracts in Medline [39], accessed Jul. 7, 2008. Documents that matchedthe query with a BM25EC score above a Z-score of 10 were consideredmatching the OMIM disease [40]. Each MeSH disease name and synonyms wereexpressed as a query of the form (“disease name” “alias 1”|“alias 2”| .. . ). Common disease names were expressed as a single phrase query.

To determine diseases that are associated with a given protein, theinventors queried BioMart by using IPI identifiers for proteins in theurine proteome to obtain corresponding protein descriptions and genenames. Queries of the form (IPI-id|“description”|GeneName) weregenerated for each protein, where IPI-id is the IPI identifier, anddescription is the description phrase retrieved from BioMart. Thesequeries were run against Medline by using Twease with the sliderparameter set to 0. Lists of documents matching protein names werestored and overlapped with lists of documents matching diseases. Pairsof disease associated proteins that matched less than 5 documents werediscarded (manual examination indicated that this level of overlapfrequently happens as an artifact of the search procedure). To furtherincrease stringency of the protein disease literature associations, theinventors estimated the odds that the number of overlapping documentsfound between a given disease and protein could occur by chance,considering the number of documents matching either the disease or theproteins in Medline. Only protein name/disease name pairs with oddsratio greater than 2,000 were reported. Lists of overlapping documentswere formatted in HTML files organized in hierarchies of diseases orproteins.

List of Abbreviations.

Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), linear iontrap (LTQ).

Results

Exhaustive Protein Capture from Routinely Collected Human Urine

In order to identify medically useful urinary proteins, the inventorsobtained urine as routinely collected clean catch, mid stream urinespecimens, collected at the time of clinical evaluation. The inventorsexamined urine samples from 12 children and young adults evaluated forabdominal pain in our Emergency Department, all of whom were previouslyhealthy. Also examined were the urine samples from asymptomatic patientsevaluated 6-8 weeks after they underwent appendectomies. All urinesexhibited normal profiles without evidence of renal disease orinfection, as assessed by using clinical urinalysis (data not shown).All urine specimens were frozen within 6 hours of collection, consistentwith earlier temporal analysis of whole urine specimens which indicatedthat no detectable degradation occurred for as long as 24 hours of 4° C.refrigerated storage with subsequent freezing at −80° C. [14-16]. Thisis expected given the fact that urine is stored in situ for many hoursin the bladder, reaching a physiologic equilibrium prior to collection.

Urine is a complex mixture with abundant proteins such as albumin anduromodulin obscuring the identification of less concentrated,biologically more informative proteins such as secreted cytokines andhormones for example. Thus, the inventors adopted a fractionation methodthat reduced mixture complexity while minimizing loss of material byfirst ultracentrifugating to fractionate urinary exosomes and other highmolecular weight complexes from soluble peptides and proteins,subsequently capturing the latter by using size excluded cation exchangechromatography and trichloroacetic acid precipitation, respectively,which has been shown to capture more than 95% of proteins under similarconditions [17, 18].

Secondary and tertiary fractionations of thus captured proteins andpeptides were achieved by using one dimensional SDS-PAGE of theultracentrifugation and precipitation fractions, and liquidchromatography of the tryptic peptides of SDS-PAGE resolved proteins,respectively. As a result, high abundance proteins such as albumin anduromodulin, which would otherwise comprise more than 99% of the mixture,can be separated effectively from the bulk of the proteome (FIG. 1).Though the composition and concentration of urine varies withphysiologic state, there was less than 10±10% (mean±standard deviation)difference in total protein abundance among individual specimens, asascertained by using gel image densitometry (FIG. 1), similar to earlierstudies of urine of children [19-21].

Accurate and Comprehensive Identification of Urinary Proteomes

In order to maximize detection sensitivity while minimizingidentification errors, the inventors used the recently developed hybridLTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometer for tryptic peptide sequencing of theabove fractionated proteomes. A representative set of tandem massspectra is shown in FIG. 2, achieving mass errors of less than 2 ppm forthe majority of the LC/MS runs as judged from analysis of trypsinautolysis peptides (FIG. 3). Peptide sequences were identified fromtandem mass spectra by using probability based Mascot searches of thehuman IPI database (Methods). By carrying out simultaneous searches ofthe data against a decoy database containing reversed protein sequences,and rejecting (false) identifications of spectra that matched decoysequences, as well as excluding proteins identified on the basis ofsingle peptides, the inventors were able to achieve an apparent falsepositive protein identification frequency of less than 1%. The mediannumber of unique peptides per identified protein was 10.

As a result, the inventors identified with high degree of accuracy [12],126 unique peptides, corresponding to 2,362 proteins. These proteinsinclude 891 proteins identified in an earlier high accuracy study of thehuman urine proteome [13], and more than 1,000 additional proteinsidentified for the first time (FIG. 4). These data are provided asAdditional Files, and can be accessed publicly from the inventors'server (at the World Wide Website of“childrenshospital.org/research/steenlab”).

Origin of the Human Urinary Proteome

The composition of the identified proteomes was characterized withrespect to Gene Ontology (GO) annotated biological function, apparentphysical origin, and predicted tissue expression. As compared with theentire list of IPI entries, analysis of GO annotated biological functionrevealed saturation of cellular components such as the cytoplasm,endoplasmic reticulum, golgi, lysosome, and the plasma membrane.Proteins from the nucleus were relatively under-represented, consistentwith the general absence of intact cells in human urine. Similar to[13], the inventors observed a relative enrichment of hydrolases,peptidases, carbohydrate and lipid binding proteins, and a relativeunder-representation of nucleic acid binding proteins.

By comparing whether identified proteins sedimented in the 17,000 gversus 210,000 g ultracentrifugation fractions, were adsorbed onto sizeexclusion ion exchange resin or were TCA precipitated, the inventorsdefined them as large or small complexes, and soluble peptides orproteins, respectively. The fractions of proteins identified uniquelyfrom these physical states were 14, 20, 3 and 9%, respectively,demonstrating that individual proteins or their variants exist inmultiple physical states. For example, components of the urinaryexosomes including the endosomal sorting complex (ESCRT-I), BRO1/ALIX,and VPS4, were detected as both small complexes and soluble proteins.Similarly, insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs) whichare low molecular weight circulating hormones were detected as solubleproteins, peptides, and in small complexes. Though the size excluded ionexchange fraction contributed only 3% to the total unique proteinidentifications, it was substantially enriched for biomedicallysignificant molecules which would not be detected otherwise, includingcirculating hormones such as hepcidin and chromogranin [22, 23], andshed cell surface molecules such as Ly-6 and platelet glycoproteins [24,25].

The inventors assessed the probable tissue origin of the identifiedproteome by comparing it to published tissue expression atlases. Asexpected, 90% of the proteins detected in the urinary proteome havetissue expression profiles that include organs of the urogenital tract,such as the kidneys and the bladder, from which they likely originate.In addition to these proximal organs, the urinary proteome contains asubstantial number of proteins that appear to originate from distaltissues. Among them are 336 proteins that are uniquely expressed indistal tissues such as the nervous system, heart and vasculature, lung,blood and bone marrow, intestine, liver and other intra-abdominalviscera, suggesting that a substantial portion of the urinary proteomeis formed as a result of their systemic circulation and serumfiltration. For instance, the urinary proteome includes Nogo/reticulonwhich is involved in the regulation of neurite growth and is expressedin the nervous system but not the urogenital tract [26]. Similarly, theurinary proteome includes angiopoietin-2, involved in angiogenesis andvascular homeostasis, and is expressed by the vascular endothelium [27].

Individual Urinary Proteomes

By virtue of studying individual urinary proteomes, the inventorsassessed the extent of similarities and differences among them. For the12 specimens studied in this example, the inventors detected 1,124±292(mean±standard deviation) proteins per individual proteome, with theaverage concordance of 68%, as calculated over all binary comparisons.Highly abundant proteins common to all individual proteomes includemolecules involved in renotubular trafficking (uromodulin, cubilin, andmegalin (LRP2)), serum filtered enzymes and carriers (bikunin (AMBP),aminopeptidase N, ceruloplasmin, apolipoproteins, and immunoglobulins),extracellular structural components (perlecan, glial fibrillary acidicproteins), as well as a variety of other secreted molecules such asCD44, tetraspanin, and lysosomal associated membrane proteins (LAMPs).Many of these have been detected in human urine previously, and manywere identified for the first time. Examples of the latter includeclaudin, a regulator of tight junctions involved in the maintenance ofglomerular and tubular integrity [28], collectrin, a novel homolog ofthe angiotensin converting enzyme related carboxypeptidease implicatedin renal failure and the pathogenesis of polycystic kidney disease [29],SLC5A2, a tubular sodium-glucose transporter which causes autosomalrecessive renal glucosuria when defective [30], and numerous otherproteins with poorly understood functions such as peflin and trefoilfactor 2.

In large part, the variability observed among individual proteomesappears to be multifactorial in origin, as suggested by the multimodaldistribution of the coefficients of variation of proteins' apparentdetectability, as measured by using spectral counting [31] (FIG. 5;representative proteins are labeled). Proteins with high degree ofapparent variability included complement factors, α1-anti-trypsin,protein C inhibitor, galectin (LGALS3BP), CD59, CD14, α-enolase,α2-macroglobulin, gelsolin, haptoglobin, hemopexin, intelectin,fibrinogen, arylsulfatase, serum amyloid A2, cystatin C, angiotensin,and resistin, among others. Many of these proteins are components of theacute phase response [32], consistent with the collection of some of thestudied specimens from patients with acute abdominal pain. Otherdifferences among proteomes included components of seminal fluid andother sex specific proteins such as semenogelin.

Urine Proteomics for Profiling of Human Disease

The inventors annotated the identified urinary proteins with respect topossible associations with human disease by using machine learning andtext mining of Medline abstracts. Annotations identified for the 26common and more than 200 rare examined diseases are available inhypertext documents (Additional Files,http://www.childrenshospital.org/research/steenlab), with links toinformation about the identified proteins and original studies abouttheir role in disease. They include common kidney diseases such asnephrotic syndrome (72 proteins) and nephritis (139), systemic illnessessuch as sepsis (42), diseases of distal organs such as pneumonia (34),meningitis (22), and colitis (45). In addition, the proteome wasannotated with respect to more than 500 rare diseases, including storagediseases such as Niemann-Pick disease, immune system disorders such asWiskott-Aldrich syndrome, and diseases of the nervous system such asspinocerebellar ataxia. These associations may be used to developdiagnostic tests or new approaches for the study and monitoring ofdisease progression.

References cited by number in brackets, i.e. “(#)” in Example 1 arecited below and are incorporate herein in their entirety by reference.

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Example 2

Appendicitis is among many human diseases, for which the diagnosis iscomplicated by the heterogeneity of its clinical presentation andshortage of diagnostic markers. As such, it remains the most commonsurgical emergency of children, with initial diagnosis accuracyadditionally challenged because of non-specific but similar symptoms ofmany other childhood conditions (1). Delays in accurate diagnosis leadto increased mortality, morbidity, and costs associated with thecomplications of appendicitis.

The use of high resolution computed tomography (CT) to identifyappendiceal inflammation was hoped to improve both the diagnosis andtreatment of acute appendicitis. Though variable, these improvementshave been modest at best, with rates of unnecessary appendectomies andruptures of 3-30% and 30-45%, respectively (2-4). In addition,availability of and experience with CT limit the usefulness of thisapproach. Furthermore, recently its use has been re-evaluated due toconcerns of cancer risk (5).

Thus, several studies sought to identify laboratory markers of acuteappendicitis, by studying both markers of the acute phase response, aswell as specific inflammatory mediators. The performance of bothappeared to be limited (6-11), likely because of the non-specific andunrelated mechanisms of their elevation during acute appendicitis whichis characterized specifically by the infiltration of neutrophils andrelease of distinct cytokines (12, 13).

As disclosed herein, the inventors using an unbiased approach, haveprofiled the molecular alterations on a proteomic scale, includingmolecules that are being secreted locally by the diseased tissuesthemselves or produced systemically in response to local disease. Theinventors have identified various urinary markers for appendicitis.Because urine is abundant, obtained frequently and non-invasively, andas a result of being a serum filtrate, is relatively simple in itscomposition, the inventors have discovered urinary markers for the usein an simple and rapid method to identify a subject with appendicitis.

Recently, advanced mass spectrometry (MS) has been used effectively todiscover the protein composition of human urine, (14-16) and to identifymarkers of diseases affecting the kidney (17) and the urogenital tract(18). Similarly, MS studies of urine have been used to study proteinsproduced by distal organs such as the brain (19) and the intestine,(20)and to relate them to brain injury and inflammatory bowel disease,respectively.

Here, the inventors demonstrate the use of urine proteome profiling andhave discovered urinary markers of acute appendicitis. By using highaccuracy mass spectrometry, the inventors identified more than 2,000unique proteins in urine specimens routinely collected from children andyoung adults evaluated for acute abdominal pain in the emergencydepartment (ED). Statistical comparisons of individual urine proteomes,pattern recognition class prediction, and gene expression profiling ofdiseased appendices were used to discover diagnostic markers. Bycarrying out a blinded, prospective study of these markers, theinventors assessed their diagnostic performance.

Methods Use in Example 2

Study Population.

The inventors studied 67 children and young adults who presented to theED suspected of having acute appendicitis. Patients were excluded ifthey had pre-existing autoimmune, neoplastic, renal or urologic diseaseor were pregnant. Urine was collected as clean catch, mid stream samplesas part of routine ED evaluation of abdominal pain. Additionalintra-individual control specimens were collected from selected patientswith appendicitis after undergoing appendectomies. Informed consent wasobtained prior to knowledge of final diagnosis and the urine remainingin the laboratory was retrieved and stored at −80° C. within 6 hours ofcollection. The expected number of patients was estimated by using thePearson 2 test to detect a difference at a two-sided statisticalsignificance level of 5% and power of 90% that requires 6 patients ineach group, assuming that 80% of the positive samples (5 patients) willcontain at least one protein unique to the appendicitis as compared tothe non-appendicitis group (21). This study was approved by theChildren's Hospital Boston Committee on Clinical Investigation, began inNovember of 2006, and ended in May of 2008.

Discovery Urine Proteome Profiling and Validation Target MassSpectrometry.

For the discovery of markers, thawed 10 ml urine aliquots werefractionated by using ultracentrifugation, cation exchangechromatography, protein precipitation, polyacrylamide gelelectrophoresis, and reverse phase liquid chromatography. Their proteincomposition was discovered by using liquid chromatography tandem massspectrometry (LC-MS/MS) using a nanoflow HPLC system (Eksigent) coupledto a hybrid linear ion trap-Orbitrap (LTQ-Orbitrap) mass spectrometer(Thermo Scientific). The LTQ-Orbitrap enables an unprecedentedcombination of high detection sensitivity in the attomolar (10-18 M)range, and high mass accuracy of less than 2 parts per million (0.001 Dafor a typical 500 Da peptide), as described in detail in theaccompanying manuscript (22). Validation of markers was performed using1 ml aliquots of coded specimens that were blinded to the final outcome.The entire experimental procedure is schematized in FIG. 7.

Analysis.

Urine markers were ranked by calculating relative enrichment ratios(RER) of detection in appendicitis versus non-appendicitis groups bysumming individual protein spectral counts normalized to the spectralcounts of albumin to account for small differences in total proteinabundance, (23) where RER=(appendicitis) ΣC_(p)/C_(a)/(non-appendicitis)ΣC_(p)/C_(a), with C_(p) and C_(a) denoting spectral counts of proteinmarkers and albumin, respectively. Urinary markers were additionallyranked by assessing the prevalence of their detection among differentspecimens by using a uniformity parameter (U), calculated by dividingthe number of appendicitis cases in which they were detected by thetotal number of appendicitis cases. Urinary markers were filtered tohave U>0.7 and RER>5 to identify those that were variably detected orinsufficiently enriched, respectively. Support vector machine analysisand comparison of urine protein markers with tissue gene expressionprofiles of diseased appendices were carried as described herein. Thelatter was based on a previous study (24). Receiver operatingcharacteristics were calculated using standard methods.

Outcome Measures.

Final diagnosis was determined by the presence or absence ofappendicitis on gross and histological examination. All appendectomyspecimens were reviewed by a clinical pathologist, and their diseaseassignments were confirmed by an independent, blinded review. Onepatient with perforated appendicitis underwent an interval appendectomy,and was not included in the histologic review. Assessment of thehistologic severity of appendicitis was done by classifying thespecimens as having: no inflammatory changes (normal); foci ofneutrophilic infiltration in mucosa or wall (focal); scatteredtransmural infiltration (mild); dense transmural infiltration withtissue distortion (moderate); dense transmural infiltration with tissuenecrosis or wall perforation (severe). For patients who did not undergoappendectomies, the outcome was confirmed via telephone 6-8 weeks afterthe ED evaluation. All patients enrolled in the study received a finaloutcome.

Tissue Immunohistochemistry and Urine Immunoblotting.

Immunohistochemical staining of formalin fixed, paraffin embeddedappendices was performed by using the rabbit anti-LRG polyclonalantibody at 1:750 dilution (Atlas Antibodies), OmniMap DAB anti-rabbitHRP detection kit and the Ventana Discovery XT automated slideprocessing platform, according to the manufacturer's instructions(Ventana Medical Systems). Staining specificity was confirmed by usingliver and muscle as the positive and negative controls, respectively(data not shown).

For immunoblotting of urine, specimens were precipitated and resolved bySDS-PAGE as described for target mass spectrometry. Western blotting wasdone blinded to final outcome, as described previously (25), using therabbit anti-LRG polyclonal antibody at 1:2000 dilution, and theSuperSignal West Pico chemiluminescent reagent (Thermo). Equal totalprotein loading was assessed by Coomassie staining (22).

Results Study Population

Over the 18 month course of this study, 67 patients were enrolled whopresented to our Emergency department (ED) and underwent evaluation forpossible acute appendicitis. In agreement with earlier studies of theepidemiology and presentation of acute appendicitis in pediatric EDs,the mean age of our study population was 11 years, with presenting signsand symptoms described in Table 2. Twenty five patients (37%) received afinal diagnosis of appendicitis. All patients with appendicitisunderwent appendectomies, 16% of which were found to have a perforation.One patient (4%) who received a pre-operative diagnosis of appendicitiswas found to have no gross or histologic evidence of appendicitis uponundergoing appendectomy. Twenty four percent of patients were found tohave no specific cause of their abdominal pain, with the remainingpatients found to have a variety of common and rare mimicking conditions(Table 3).

TABLE 2 Presenting signs, symptoms and diagnostic studies of 67 patientswith acute abdominal pain. Values are reported as mean standarddeviation, where appropriate. Final Diagnosis AppendicitisNon-appendicitis Number 25 42 Gender (% male) 56 40 Age (years)   11 ±3.5   11 ± 4.2 Duration of symptoms (days)  2.7 ± 2.0  2.2 ± 1.7 Nauseaor vomiting (%) 72 52 Fever (%) 52 48 Pain migration (%) 36 14 RLQ painor tenderness (%) 100  95 Temperature at triage (° C.) 36.9 ± 0.6 36.6 ±0.9 Peripheral white blood cell count 15.7 ± 5.2 11.0 ± 6.4 (Kcells/mm³) Absolute neutrophil count (K 12.8 ± 5.4  8.5 ± 6.6 cells/mm³)US imaging (%) 88 74 US diagnosis of appendicitis (%) 64  0 CT imaging(%) 60 64 CT diagnosis of appendicitis (%) 93   7.4 RLQ (right lowerquadrant), US (ultrasound), CT (computer tomography).

TABLE 3 Final diagnosis of the 67 study patients Number of patientsAppendicitis 25 Non specific abdominal pain 16 Ovarian cyst or torsion 5Constipation 5 Pyelonephritis or Urinary Tract Infection 5 Renalcalculus 2 Mesenteric adenitis 2 Gastroenteritis or gastritis 2Influenza or scarlet fever 2 Intussusception 1 Inflammatory boweldisease 1 Diverticulitis 1

Discovery of diagnostic markers by using urine proteomic profiling urinemarkers of appendicitis were identified from the analysis of 12specimens, collected at the onset of the study, and distributed equallybetween patients with and without appendicitis. Table 4 lists the 32markers, identified by ranking their relative enrichment ratios (RER).These proteins include known components of the acute phase response suchas α-1-acid glycoprotein (orosomucoid), plasminogen, carbonic anhydrase,angiotensin converting enzyme, and lipopolysaccharide binding protein,consistent with the systemic inflammatory response that accompaniesacute appendicitis.

TABLE 4 urine marker proteins identified using relative enrichment ratioanalysis. Protein Accession Number* U^(†) RER^(†) Adipocyte specificadhesion molecule IPI00024929 1.0 18 Leucine-rich α-2-glycoproteinIPI00022417 1.0 9.5 Zinc-α-2-glycoprotein IPI00 166729 1.0 7.3 α-1-acidglycoprotein 2 IPI00020091 1.0 5.8 MLKL IPI00180781 1.0 5.5 α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 IPI00022429 1.0 5.3 Plasminogen IPI00019580 1.0 5.1Carbonic anhydrase 1 IPI002 15983 0.8 15 Angiotensin converting enzyme 2IPI00465 187 0.8 12 Nicastrin IPI00021983 0.8 12 Lipopolysaccharidebinding protein IPI00032311 0.8 11 Vascular adhesion molecule 1 IPI00018136 0.8 10 PDZK1 interacting protein 1 IPI0001 1858 0.8 7.5 SLC9A3IPI00011184 0.8 7.5 Lymphatic vessel endothelial IPI00290856 0.8 6.9hyaluronan receptor 1 FXR2 IPI000 16250 0.7 N/A SORBS1 IPI00002491 0.7N/A SLC4A1 IPI00022361 0.7 44 PRIC285 IPI00249305 0.7 14.9 TGFbeta2RIPI00383479 0.7 11.3 SLC2A1 IPI00220194 0.7 10.7 Rcl IPI00007926 0.7 9.7VA0D1 IPI00034159 0.7 8.9 SLC13A3 IPI00103426 0.7 7.8 TTYH3 IPI007494290.7 7.3 SPRX2 IPI00004446 0.7 6.4 BAZ1B IPI00216695 0.7 6.1β-1,3-galactosyltransferase IPI00032034 0.7 6.1 chromogranin AIPI00383975 0.7 5.9 Novel protein IPI00550644 0.7 5.5 SLC2A2 IPI000039050.7 5.2 FBLN7 IPI00167710 0.7 5.1 ^(†)Values of U = 1 indicate markersdetected in all appendicitis specimens, whereas values of relativeenrichment ration (RER) = 1 indicate markers that exhibit no apparentenrichment in appendicitis as compared to non-appendicitis groups. N/A(not detected) identifies markers not detected in non-appendicitisspecimens). (*International Protein Index (version 3.36, at the WorldWide Website of “ebi.ac.uk/IPI”).)

The markers also include a number of cell adhesion proteins such asadipocyte specific adhesion molecule, a component of the epithelial andendothelial tight junctions, leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG), amarker of neutrophil differentiation involved in cell trafficking,vascular adhesion molecule 1, which mediates lymphocyte-endothelialadhesion, and lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan acid receptor 1involved in cell migration, consistent with earlier findings ofleukocyte trafficking and infiltration into mucosal tissue thataccompanies acute appendicitis.

Remaining top ranking markers do not appear to share any knownfunctional or structural similarities, though some of them such as(3-1,3-galactosyltransferase and VA0D1 have been shown to functionspecifically in the colonic epithelium, and therefore, may includecomponents of the local and systemic appendicitis response. Additionalmarkers were identified by using support vector machine (SVM) learning,as well as comparisons with tissue gene expression profiles of diseasedappendices (Tables 6 and 7). In total, 49 markers were identified.

TABLE 6 urine marker proteins identified using SVM analysis ProteinAccession Number Serum amyloid A protein IPI00552578α-1-antichymotrypsin IPI00550991 Supervillin IPI00412650 Mannan-bindinglectin serine protease 2 IPI00306378 Inter-α-trypsin inhibitorIPI00218192 VIP36 IPI00009950 Prostaglandin-H2 D-isomerase IPI00013179α-1-acid glycoprotein 2 IPI00020091 AMBP IPI00022426 α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 IPI00022429 CD14 IPI00029260 Hemoglobin α IPI00410714Apolipoprotein D IPI00006662 Hemoglobin β IPI00654755 Leucine-richα-2-glycoprotein IPI00022417 Zinc-α-2-glycoprotein IPI00166729

TABLE 7 Urine marker proteins identified by comparisons withcorresponding tissue gene overexpression. Fold gene Accession Affymetrixover- Protein Number gene ID* expression* S100-A8 IPI00007047 214370_at67 S100-A9 IPI00027462 203535_at 45 Amyloid-like protein 2 IPI00031030214456_x_at 38 Versican IPI00009802 211571_s_at 11 SPRX2 IPI00004446205499_at 8.1 α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 IPI00022429 205041_s_at 7.8Interleukin-1 receptor IPI00000045 212657_s_at 4.3 antagonist proteinLymphatic vessel IPI00290856 220037_s_at 2.0 endothelial hyaluronan acidreceptor 1 *From Murphy C G, et al. Mucosal Immunol. 2008; 1: 297-308.

Validation of Urine Protein Markers by Using Target Mass Spectrometry

In order to assess their diagnostic performance, the inventorsdetermined their concentrations in urine of all enrolled patients in aprospective fashion, with experimental measurements blinded to thepatients' outcomes. Proteins detected with sufficient uniformity amongthe 67 specimens examined are listed in Table 5. The remaining proteinswere detected in less than half of specimens, likely as a result ofdifferences in processing of the discovery and validation specimens.Comparison of differences in urinary concentration between theappendicitis and non-appendicitis patient groups revealed LRG, S100-A8,and α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (orosomucoid) as exhibiting substantialapparent enrichment in the urines of patients with appendicitis (FIG.8).

TABLE 5 Urine marker proteins validated by target mass spectrometry. ROCAUC 95% confidence Protein AUC interval Leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein(LRG) 0.97 0.93-1.0  calgranulin A (S100-A8) 0.84 0.72-0.95 α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM) 0.84 0.72-0.95 Plasminogen (PLG) 0.79 0.67-0.91Mannan-binding lectin serine 0.74 0.61-0.88 protease 2 (MASP2)Zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1) 0.74 0.60-0.88 α-1-antichymotrypsin(SERPINA3) 0.84 0.73-0.94 Apolipoprotein D (ApoD) 0.53 0.38-0.69 ROC(receiver operating characteristic), AUC (area under the curve).

Indeed, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for these markersexhibited excellent performance, with LRG and S100-A8 having area underthe curve (AUC) values of 0.97 and 0.84, respectively (FIG. 9, Table 5).Other prospectively validated markers with apparently good performanceincluded orosomucoid and α-1-antichymotrypsin (serpin A3); plasminogen,mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2), zinc-α-2-glycoprotein(AZGP) exhibited intermediate performance, and apolipoprotein Dexhibited poor performance. These findings are consistent with most ofthese proteins being components of the general acute phase response,during which they may be upregulated by a variety of infectious andinflammatory conditions, including some that are represented in thenon-appendicitis group (Table 3).

The inventors assessed the relationship between apparent urine proteinabundance of markers and the apparent severity of appendicitis byclassifying appendectomy specimens with respect to the degree ofneutrophil infiltration (12). As can be seen from FIG. 10, LRG appearsto be a marker of focal appendicitis, whereas S100-A8 appears to be amarker of progressive disease, reaching a peak level with moderateappendicitis. In addition to exhibiting excellent diagnosticperformance, LRG was detected strongly in diseased as compared to normalappendices by using tissue immunohistochemistry (FIG. 10), consistentwith its biological function and proposed role in appendicitis. Itsenrichment in urine of patients with appendicitis relative to those withother conditions was confirmed by using Western immunoblotting (FIG.9B), demonstrating that clinical diagnostic immunoassays can be used asa method to identify the urinary markers disclosed herein.

As disclosed herein, the inventors used urine proteome profiling todiscover urinary markers of acute appendicitis. Usage of exhaustiveprotein capture and fractionation coupled with high accuracy massspectrometry allowed the inventors to detect more than 2,000 uniqueproteins in routinely collected urine specimens, constituting thelargest and most comprehensive characterization of protein compositionof human urine to date (22). The discovered urinary diagnostic markers(Tables 4, 6, and 7) were subsequently validated in a prospective,blinded study of children suspected of having acute appendicitis,identifying several with statistically significant enrichment in theurine of children with histologically proven appendicitis as compared tothose without (Table 5).

The use of high resolution CT and US has led to substantial improvementsin the diagnosis of acute appendicitis, with respect to both the ratesof complications and unnecessary appendectomies (2-4). However,significant diagnostic challenges remain, largely because of thenon-specific nature of signs and symptoms of many conditions that canmimic acute appendicitis. Similarly, CT and US findings can often beindeterminate or equivocal (26). Finally, limited availability andexperience with dedicated CT protocols for appendicitis, as well asfuture risk of cancer, can often limit its usefulness (5).

Numerous studies have sought to identify biomarkers to aid the diagnosisof appendicitis, with the absolute blood neutrophil count and serumC-reactive protein levels being most useful, but still limited withrespect to their sensitivity and specificity (27, 28).

Recent attempts to identify new and improved diagnostic markers, such asCD44, interleukin-6, interleukin-8, and 5-hydroxy indole acetate,produced limited improvements as compared to the existing ones (6-11),likely as a result of being closely correlated with the existing markersof the general acute phase response, or not specific for the distinctimmune mechanisms that characterize acute appendicitis.

By taking advantage of the latest generation of mass spectrometers thatcombine high accuracy with high sensitivity, and carrying out exhaustiveprotein capture and fractionation of routinely collected urinespecimens, the inventors developed a method that enables unbiaseddiscovery and validation of multiple diagnostic markers, therebyovercoming the limitations of conventional approaches based on singlehypothesis testing. Because of the depth of discovery achieved,identifying more than 2,000 unique proteins in total, urine proteomicprofiling, like gene expression profiling, may be susceptible to noiseand selection bias. In order to minimize these potential problems (12),discovery urine proteomes were compared not only between patients withhistologically proven appendicitis and those without, but also with thesame patients after they recovered from appendectomies, therebyminimizing individual differences due to age, gender, physiologic stateor genetic variation. High stringency identification criteria were used,essentially eliminating false identifications (22). The discriminatorypower of diagnostic markers was assessed by examining the level anduniformity of their enrichment in patients with appendicitis (Table 4),by using pattern recognition class prediction learning algorithms (Table6), and by comparing discovered urine protein markers with tissue geneexpression profiles of diseased appendices (Table 7) (24).

As a result, the 49 discovered urinary markers constitute an extensivecharacterization of the molecular response that accompanies acuteappendicitis, including both systemically and locally producedmolecules. Among the former are known components of the acute phaseresponse, such as orosomucoid, plasminogen, angiotensin convertingenzyme, carbonic anhydrase, TGF β, lipopolysaccharide binding protein,serum amyloid A, α-1-antichymotrypsin, AMBP (bikunin), andmannan-binding lectin serine protease (2). Numerous cell adhesionmolecules that may participate in the local generation of the systemicinflammatory response or its localization to the appendiceal tissue wereidentified, including the vascular adhesion molecule 1, lymphatic vesselendothelial hyaluronan acid receptor 1, adipocyte specific adhesionmolecule, supervillin, CD14, and leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein.Likewise, several potential local inflammatory mediators and cytokineswere identified such as chromogranin A, β-1,3-galactosyltransferase,interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein, and S100-A8.

The discovered urinary diagnostic markers were validated in theirability to accurately diagnose acute appendicitis by measuring theirurinary concentrations in a prospective and blinded study of 67 patientswho were suspected to have acute appendicitis, with the final diagnosisverified by blinded histologic examination of removed appendices. Sevenmarkers were successfully validated, including LRG, S100-A8, and ORMwhich exhibited excellent diagnostic performance (FIG. 9, Table 5). Theenrichment of LRG in urine of patients with appendicitis was confirmedby using Western immunoblotting (FIG. 9B), and its enrichment indiseased as compared to normal appendices was demonstrated by usingtissue immunohistochemistry (FIG. 10).

LRG is expressed by differentiating neutrophils, liver, and highendothelial venules of the mesentery, including the meso-appendix,functioning in leukocyte activation and chemotaxis, respectively (29,30). Its enrichment in the urine of patients with acute appendicitisdemonstrates that it may be shed by locally activated neutrophils and/orlocal inflammatory sites such as the meso-appendix through which theylikely traffic (FIG. 10). As such, it is likely a specific marker oflocal inflammatory processes such as those that specificallycharacterize acute appendicitis, as opposed to general markers ofsystemic response such as the acute phase reactants, and macroscopicmarkers of local inflammation such as those observed using US and CTimaging.

LRG appears to be enriched in the urine of patients with appendicitis inthe absence of macroscopic inflammatory changes, as evidenced by itsaccurate diagnosis of appendicitis of 2 patients who exhibited normalimaging findings but had evidence of acute appendicitis on histologicexamination, as well as its accurate diagnosis of the absence ofappendicitis in a patient without histologic evidence of appendicitis,but who underwent appendectomy as a result of findings of appendicealenlargement on CT. Lastly, LRG appears to be enriched in the urine ofpatients with pyelonephritis, consistent with its proposed role in localinflammatory processes. Consequently, LRG will be useful to diagnoseacute appendicitis following ruling out other local tissue infections,such as pyelonephritis, abscesses, and pelvic inflammatory disease (31).Importantly, LRG appears to be strongly expressed in diseasedappendices, demonstrating that it may underlie a principal pathway ofappendiceal inflammation by localizing or sustaining the localneutrophilic infiltration that specifically characterizes acuteappendicitis (12, 13, 24).

The inventors have not tested urine protein markers of acuteappendicitis in patients evaluated in settings other than the emergencydepartment, as well as in older adult patients, who may include othercauses of abdominal pain from those observed in the study cohort. Theinventors' demonstration of urinary markers for appendicitis establishesa useful paradigm for the identification of other clinically usefulurinary markers of human disease, including infectious, endocrine,autoimmune and neoplastic diseases.

References cited in Example 2 and disclosed in italicized brackets (i.e.“(#)”) are below and each are incorporated herein in their entirety byreference.

-   1. Addiss D G, Shaffer N, Fowler B S, Tauxe R V. The epidemiology of    appendicitis and appendectomy in the United States. Am J Epidemiol    1990; 132:910-25.-   2. Rao P M, Rhea J T, Novelline R A, Mostafavi A A, McCabe C J.    Effect of computed tomography of the appendix on treatment of    patients and use of hospital resources. N Engl J Med 1998;    338:141-6.-   3. Peck J, Peck A, Peck C. The clinical role of noncontrast helical    computed tomography in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Am J    Surg 2000; 180:133-6.-   4. Partrick D A, Janik J E, Janik J S, Bensard D D, Karrer F M.    Increased CT scan utilization does not improve the diagnostic    accuracy of appendicitis in children. J Pediatr Surg 2003;    38:659-62.-   5. Brenner D J, Hall E J. Computed tomography—an increasing source    of radiation exposure. N Engl J Med 2007; 357:2277-84.-   6. Taha A S, Grant V, Kelly R W. Urinalysis for interleukin-8 in the    non-invasive diagnosis of acute and chronic inflammatory diseases.    Postgrad Med J 2003; 79: 159-63.-   7. Bolandparvaz S, Vasei M, Owji A A, et al. Urinary 5-hydroxy    indole acetic acid as a test for early diagnosis of acute    appendicitis. Clin Biochem 2004; 37:985-9.-   8. Apak S, Kazez A, Ozel S K, Ustundag B, Akpolat N, Kizirgil A.    Spot urine 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid levels in the early diagnosis    of acute appendicitis. J Pediatr Surg 2005; 40: 1436-9.-   9. Rivera-Chavez F A, Peters-Hybki D L, Barber R C, et al. Innate    immunity genes influence the severity of acute appendicitis. Ann    Surg 2004; 240:269-77.-   10. Paajanen H, Mansikka A, Laato M, Ristamaki R, Pulkki K,    Kostiainen S, Novel serum inflammatory markers in acute    appendicitis. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 2002; 62:579-84.-   11. Kafetzis D A, Velissariou I M, Nikolaides P, et al.    Procalcitonin as a predictor of severe appendicitis in children. Eur    J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 2005; 24:484-7.-   12. Tsuji M, Puri P, Reen D J. Characterisation of the local    inflammatory response in appendicitis. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr    1993; 16:43-8.-   13. Mazzucchelli L, Hauser C, Zgraggen K, et al. Expression of    interleukin-8 gene in inflammatory bowel disease is related to the    histological grade of active inflammation. Am J Pathol 1994;    144:997-1007.-   14. Rai A J, Stemmer P M, Zhang Z, et al. Analysis of Human Proteome    Organization-   15. Plasma Proteome Project (HUPO PPP) reference specimens using    surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time of flight    (SELDI-TOF) mass spectrometry: multi-institution correlation of    spectra and identification of biomarkers. Proteomics 2005;    5:3467-74.-   16. Pisitkun T, Johnstone R, Knepper M A. Discovery of appendicitis    biomarker s. Mol Cell Proteomics 2006.-   17. Adachi J, Kumar C, Zhang Y, Olsen J V, Mann M. The human urinary    proteome contains more than 1500 proteins, including a large    proportion of membrane proteins. Genome Biol 2006; 7:R80.-   18. Woroniecki R P, Orlova T N, Mendelev N, et al. Urinary proteome    of steroid-sensitive and steroid-resistant idiopathic nephrotic    syndrome of childhood. Am J Nephrol 2006; 26:258-67.-   19. Oetting W S, Rogers T B, Krick T P, Matas A J, Ibrahim H N.    Urinary beta2-microglobulin is associated with acute renal allograft    rejection. Am J Kidney Dis 2006; 47:898-904.-   20. Berger R P, Kochanek P M. Urinary S100B concentrations are    increased after brain injury in children: A preliminary study.    Pediatr Crit. Care Med 2006; 7:557-61.-   21. Propst A, Propst T, Herold M, Vogel W, Judmaier G. Interleukin-1    receptor antagonist in differential diagnosis of inflammatory bowel    diseases. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 1995; 7:1031-6.-   22. Campbell M J. Estimating sample sizes for binary, ordered    categorical, and continuous outcomes in two group comparisons.    British Medical Journal 1995; 3 11:1145-48.-   23. Kentsis A, Monigatti F, Dorff K, Campagne F, Bachur R G,    Steen H. Urine proteomics for profiling of human disease using high    accuracy mass spectrometry. Submitted 2008.-   24. Carvalho P C, Hewel J, Barbosa V C, Yates J R, 3rd. Identifying    differences in protein expression levels by spectral counting and    feature selection. Genet Mol Res 2008; 7:342-56.-   25. Murphy C G, Glickman J N, Tomczak K, et al. Acute Appendicitis    is Characterized by a Uniform and Highly Selective Pattern of    Inflammatory Gene Expression. Mucosal Immunol 2008; 1:297-308.-   26. Kentsis A, Topisirovic I, Culjkovic B, Shao L, Borden K L.    Ribavirin suppresses eIF4E-mediated oncogenic transformation by    physical mimicry of the 7-methyl guanosine mRNA cap. Proc Natl Acad    Sci USA 2004; 101:18105-10.-   27. 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Example 3 Discovery and Validation of Urine Markers of AcuteAppendicitis Using High Accuracy Mass Spectrometry Discovery ofDiagnostic Markers by Using Urine Proteomic Profiling

In order to identify candidate urinary markers of acute appendicitis,the inventors assembled a discovery urine proteome dataset, derived fromthe analysis of 12 specimens, without any clinical urinalysisabnormalities, collected at the onset of the study, and distributedequally between patients with and without appendicitis. Six of thesespecimens were collected from patients who were found to have histologicevidence of appendicitis (2 mild, 3 moderate, 1 severe). Three specimenswere collected from patients without appendicitis (1 with non-specificabdominal pain, 1 with constipation, 1 with mesenteric adenitis). Fromthe 3 patients with appendicitis, the inventors collected additionalcontrol specimens at their routine post-surgical evaluation 6-8 weeksafter undergoing appendectomies, at which time they were asymptomaticand in their usual state of health. These specimens were included in theanalysis in order to minimize the potential effect of individualvariability in urinary composition that may arise due to age, gender,physiologic state or possible genetic variation.

The urine proteome composition of these 12 specimens was discovered byusing protein capture and fractionation coupled with high accuracy massspectrometry, as described in detail in the accompanying study,¹ andschematized in FIG. 7. As urine is a complex mixture with abundantproteins such as albumin obscuring the detection of less concentrated,potentially diagnostic proteins such as secreted cytokines and mediatorsof the inflammatory response, the inventors devised a fractionationmethod that reduced mixture complexity while minimizing loss of material(FIG. 7).

As a result, the inventors were able to identify 2,362 proteins inroutinely collected urine specimens with the apparent rate of falseidentifications of less than 1%,¹ as ascertained from decoy databasesearching.² More than 1,200 identified proteins have not been detectedin previous proteomic studies of urine, and more than 300 proteinsappear to be filtered from serum and expressed in distal tissues,including the intestine. For the discovery of candidate appendicitismarkers, the inventors further increased the stringency of peptideidentifications to less than 0.1% false identifications, yieldingessentially no false protein identifications for proteins identified onthe basis of multiple peptides. For example, proteins identified on thebasis of 10 unique peptides (median for the entire dataset), have anapproximate identification error frequency of 10-19.

In order to identify candidate markers of appendicitis, the inventorstook advantage of the quantitative information provided by tandem massspectrometry by recording the number of fragment ion spectra assigned toeach unique precursor peptide, which are proportional to peptideabundance,³ and have been used for relative quantification of componentsof complex protein mixtures.⁴ Though the composition and concentrationof urine varies with physiologic state, there was less than 10±10%(mean±standard deviation) difference in total protein abundance amongindividual specimens, similar to earlier studies of urine ofchildren.⁵⁻⁷ Individual protein spectral counts, calculated by summingspectral counts of unique peptides assigned to distinct proteins, werenormalized relative to the spectral counts of albumin to account forthese small differences in total protein abundance.⁴

In order to maximize the depth of candidate marker discovery, theinventors subjected the discovery urine proteome to support vectormachine (SVM) learning in order to identify candidate urine markers thatmay be enriched as a group but not necessarily individually, as requiredby the relative expression ration (RER) analysis above. This approach isimplemented in a biomarker discovery program BDVAL that usescross-validation to identify predictive biomarkers (Fabien Campagne,unpublished results, at the World Wide Website of“icb.med.cornell.edu/wiki/index.php/BDVAL”), similar to establishedmethods for microarray class discovery.⁸ Because of the low number ofsamples, the inventors performed cross-validation with four folds,repeated 5 times with random fold assignments (12 samples total, 6cases, 6 controls). In this setting, 20 individual evaluation models(5×4) were trained. Each model was trained with a set of 50 features(normalized protein abundance levels). In each split, consisting of 9training samples and 3 test samples, a Student t-test pre-filtering stepprioritized up to 400 features whose average value differed the mostbetween cases and controls in the training set. The 400 intermediatefeatures were ranked by decreasing support vector machine weights andthe top 50 features were used to train the evaluation model (models wereimplemented as a support vector machine, implemented in libSVM withlinear kernel, and margin parameter C=1). At the end of the evaluation,the lists of features were inspected to determine how many times a givenfeature has been used in any one of the 20 evaluation models. Theinventors considered features for validation only if they were found inat least 50% of the evaluation models generated (10 models in thiscase).

Table 6 lists 17 proteins identified by SVM analysis, which includeseveral proteins that were identified by RER analysis, as well as manythat were not, including additional components of the acute phaseresponse, such as serum amyloid A, α-1-antichymotrypsin, and bikunin(AMBP). Notably, exclusion of control specimens collected fromasymptomatic patients after they underwent appendectomies increased thenumber of candidate markers to 273 by additionally including a varietyof proteins unlikely to be related to the appendicitis response, such asthe universal tyrosine kinase Src for example, suggesting thatindividually variant factors such as those that influence proteinfiltration and urine production may significantly affect biomarkerdiscovery studies.

Candidate Validation Target Mass Spectrometry

Thawed 1 ml urine aliquots were precipitated by adding trichloroaceticacid to 20% (w/v), and incubating the samples for 1 hour at 4° C.Precipitates were sedimented at 10,000 g for 15 minutes at 4° C. andpellets were washed twice with neat acetone at 4° C., with residualacetone removed by air drying. Dried pellets were resuspended in Laemmlibuffer, resolved by SDS-PAGE, alkylated and digested with trypsin asdescribed.¹ To each sample, 0.4 μg of single stranded binding (SSB)protein purified from Escherichia coli (USB) was added to serve as areference standard. Target nanoLC-MS/MS was accomplished by using theLTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometer, using the parameters described,¹ butoperated in an inclusion list dependent acquisition mode, searchingdetected precursor ions against m/z values of candidate marker peptideswith a tolerance of 0.05 Da, using an inclusion list of masses andcharges of candidate marker peptides, derived from the analysis of thediscovery proteomes. Six most intense matched ions were sequentiallyfragmented by using collision induced dissociation, and spectra of theirfragments were recorded in the linear ion trap, with the dynamicexclusion of precursor ions already selected for MS/MS of 60 sec. Suchan approach is superior to conventional data dependent acquisitionmethods by minimizing the detection of non-target peptides.⁹ Differencesin apparent protein abundance were normalized relative to exogenouslyadded SSB reference standard to account for instrumental variability.Absence of SSB from urine specimens without its addition was confirmedby searching the data against database of E. coli proteins (data notshown).

Recorded mass spectra were processed and identified, as described.¹ Theaccuracy of peptide identification was assessed by decoy databasesearching,¹ enforcing a false peptide discovery rate of less than 1%,which corresponds to essentially zero false protein discovery rate,given that all of the candidate diagnostic marker proteins wereidentified on the basis of at least 9 peptides, which corresponds to anapparent false identification frequency of less than 10-18. For example,leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG) was identified on the basis of 55unique peptides.

Urine Markers of Appendiceal Inflammatory Response

Because acute appendicitis is characterized by the increased expressionof distinct chemoattractants in the gut mucosa,¹⁰ and specificinfiltration of neutrophils,¹¹ the inventors wondered if markers ofacute appendicitis identified from studies of appendiceal tissue may bedetected in the urine of patients with appendicitis. To this end, theinventors compared candidate urine protein markers as identified byusing urine proteome profiling (Table 4) with tissue markers identifiedin a different study by using microarray gene expression of diseasedappendices.¹² FIG. 6 plots RER values of the 40 most uniformly detected(U>0.7) candidate urine markers as a function of the tissueoverexpression of their respective microarray profiled genes. Of these,more than 50% exhibit a positive correlation between tissueoverexpression and urine enrichment (FIG. 6) demonstrating that tissuegene expression profiles are useful to identify disease markers.However, only 3 of the genes that are overexpressed in diseased asopposed to normal appendices were also identified as candidate markersby urine proteome profiling: SPRX2, lymphatic vessel endothelialhyaluronan acid receptor 1 (LYVE1), and α-1-acid glycoprotein 1(orosomucoid 1), demonstrating that detection of markers of localdisease in the urine is not solely dependent on tissue overexpression,but likely also requires other factors, such as shedding, circulation inblood, and accumulation in urine. Table 7 lists urine protein markersthat were enriched in the urines of patients with appendicitis withcorresponding genes that were overexpressed in diseased appendices.

In contrast to LRG which is expressed exclusively by the neutrophils,liver and the mesentery, S100-A8 is a cytokine expressed by diversetissues, including a variety of endothelial and epithelialcells.^(13,14) It is upregulated specifically in inflammatory states,including the processes of neutrophil activation and migration. Findingsof its overexpression in appendiceal tissue during acute appendicitis,¹²and enrichment in the urine of appendicitis patients demonstrate thatlike LRG, it is also a marker of local inflammation, though itsexpression in a wide variety of tissues may affect its diagnosticspecificity, consistent with its slightly reduced dynamic range andperformance as compared to those of LRG (Table 5, FIG. 9). Accordingly,it has been found to be upregulated in a wide variety of conditions,including inflammatory bowel disease,¹⁵ arthritis,¹⁶ Kawasakivasculitis'¹⁷ cancer,¹⁸ and sepsis.¹⁹

References cited in Example 3 and disclosed as superscript (i.e. “¹”)are listed below and each are incorporated herein in their entirety byreference.

-   1. Kentsis A, Monigatti F, Dorff K, Campagne F, Bachur R G, Steen H.    Urine proteomics for profiling of human disease using high accuracy    mass spectrometry. Submitted 2008.-   2. Elias J E, Gygi S P. Target-decoy search strategy for increased    confidence in large-scale protein identifications by mass    spectrometry. Nat Methods 2007; 4:207-14.-   3. Old W M, Meyer-Arendt K, Aveline-Wolf L, et al. Comparison of    label-free methods for quantifying human proteins by shotgun    proteomics. Mol Cell Proteomics 2005; 4:1487-502.-   4. Carvalho P C, Hewel J, Barbosa V C, Yates J R, 3rd. Identifying    differences in protein expression levels by spectral counting and    feature selection. Genet Mol Res 2008; 7:342-56.-   5. Cindik N, Baskin E, Agras P I, Kinik S T, Turan M, Saatci U.    Effect of obesity on inflammatory markers and renal functions. Acta    Paediatr 2005; 94:1732-7.-   6. De Palo E F, Gatti R, Lancerin F, Cappellin E, Sartorio A,    Spinella P. The measurement of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I)    concentration in random urine samples. Clin Chem Lab Med 2002;    40:574-8.-   7. Skinner A M, Clayton P E, Price D A, Addison G M, Mui C Y.    Variability in the urinary excretion of growth hormone in children:    a comparison with other urinary proteins. J Endocrinol 1993;    138:337-43.-   8. Radmacher M D, McShane L M, Simon R. A paradigm for class    prediction using gene expression profiles. J Comput Biol 2002;    9:505-11.-   9. Jaffe J D, Keshishian H, Chang B, Addona T A, Gillette M A, Carr    S A. Accurate inclusion mass screening: a bridge from unbiased    discovery to targeted assay development for biomarker verification.    Mol Cell Proteomics 2008.-   10. Mazzucchelli L, Hauser C, Zgraggen K, et al. Expression of    interleukin-8 gene in inflammatory bowel disease is related to the    histological grade of active inflammation. Am J Pathol 1994;    144:997-1007.-   11. Tsuji M, Puri P, Reen D J. Characterisation of the local    inflammatory response in appendicitis. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr    1993; 16:43-8.-   12. Murphy C G, Glickman J N, Tomczak K, et al. Acute Appendicitis    is Characterized by a Uniform and Highly Selective Pattern of    Inflammatory Gene Expression. Mucosal Immunol 2008; 1:297-308.-   13. Passey R J, Xu K, Hume D A, Geczy C L. S100A8: emerging    functions and regulation. J Leukoc Biol 1999; 66:549-56.-   14. Foell D, Wittkowski H, Vogl T, Roth J. S100 proteins expressed    in phagocytes: a novel group of damage-associated molecular pattern    molecules. J Leukoc Biol 2007; 81:28-37.-   15. Fagerberg U L, Loof L, Lindholm J, Hansson L O, Finkel Y. Fecal    calprotectin: a quantitative marker of colonic inflammation in    children with inflammatory bowel disease. J Pediatr Gastroenterol    Nutr 2007; 45:414-20.-   16. de Seny D, Fillet M, Ribbens C, et al. Monomeric calgranulins    measured by SELDI-TOF mass spectrometry and calprotectin measured by    ELISA as biomarkers in arthritis. Clin Chem 2008; 54:1066-75.-   17. Hirono K, Foell D, Xing Y, et al. Expression of myeloid-related    protein-8 and -14 in patients with acute Kawasaki disease. J Am Coll    Cardiol 2006; 48:1257-64.-   18. Hiratsuka S, Watanabe A, Aburatani H, Maru Y. Tumour-mediated    upregulation of chemoattractants and recruitment of myeloid cells    predetermines lung metastasis. Nat Cell Biol 2006; 8:1369-75.-   19. Payen D, Lukaszewicz A C, Belikova I, et al. Gene profiling in    human blood leucocytes during recovery from septic shock. Intensive    Care Med 2008; 34:1371-6.

Example 4 Diagnostic Lateral Flow Immunoassay Test Strips-Design 1

The levels of biomarker proteins described herein can be determinedusing lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) test strips as illustrated in FIG.11-12. This test strip can be used in point-of-care testing (POCT). Thetest strip has a sample (S) position at one end of the test strip and acontrol (C) position found at the opposite end the test strip (FIG.11A). There is a test (T) position located at the middle of the teststrip, between S and T. For this embodiment of a test strip, the solidsupport 101 can be made of plastic or other non porous material,supporting the matrix 103. Located at S is a defined quantity ofdehydrated anti-biomarker protein antibody. The defined quantity ofdehydrated anti-biomarker protein antibody, when rehydrated, will bindat saturation a fixed amount of biomarker antigen, meaning that thisfixed amount of biomarker protein will completely occupy all of the Fvbinding sites of that defined quantity of antibody. If there isadditional biomarker protein in excess of the fixed amount of biomarkerthat is required to bind all of the amount of antibody from position S,the excess biomarker proteins will be free and are not bound to anyantibody in the form of an antibody-biomarker complex. The fixed amountof biomarker protein is the predetermined reference level of biomarkerprotein which is the level found in healthy individuals who do not haveacute appendicitis. The antibody at position S can be conjugated tocolloidal gold beads or colored latex beads for visualization purposes.At position T, there is a defined quantity of biomarker proteinimmobilized on the test strip. This is the same biomarker protein thatbinds the antibody deposited at position S. At position C, there isanother immobilized protein, an antibody immunoreactive to theanti-biomarker protein antibody located at the S position (FIG. 11).

The following is a description on how to use and interpret the resultsobtained for the test strip shown in FIG. 11. A sample of urine isapplied at S. The water in the urine rehydrates the dehydratedanti-biomarker protein antibody that has been deposited at S. Thedehydrated anti-biomarker protein antibody can be labeled with colloidalgold beads or colored latex beads. The biomarker protein in the urinebinds to this rehydrated anti-biomarker protein antibody to form anantibody-biomarker complex. Any biomarker protein in the urine that isin excess of the rehydrated anti-biomarker protein antibody deposited atS will be free and is not bound to any antibody. A mixture ofantibody-biomarker complex and free antibody or free biomarker will moveby capillary action away from position S and will move toward the Tposition and subsequently to the C position. When the biomarker proteinof interest is below the reference level, the mixture of antibody andbiomarker protein will contain free anti-biomarker protein antibody andantibody-biomarker protein complexes. At position T, any freeanti-biomarker protein antibody will bind to the immobilized biomarkerprotein at T. The localized concentration of free anti-biomarker proteinantibody that is colloidal gold or latex bead labeled will becomevisible as a colored line at the T position (FIG. 12B). There is freeantibody only when the biomarker protein in the urine is below thethreshold reference value found in healthy humans, which is thepredetermined reference level of biomarker protein. When the protein ofinterest is at or above the predetermined reference level, the mixtureof antibody and biomarker protein will contain all antibody-biomarkerprotein complexes and no free anti-biomarker protein antibody. At the Tposition, there will be no anti-biomarker protein antibody captured bythe immobilized biomarker protein. Thus there will be no colloidal goldor latex bead labeled anti-protein antibody accumulation, and the arearemains clear (FIG. 12A). At position C, the antibody-biomarker complexformed initially at S will be bound and captured by the immobilizedantibody immunoreactive against the anti-protein antibody coming fromthe S position. This will in turn result in a concentration of acolloidal gold or latex bead labeled anti-protein antibody accumulatedat the C position and will become visible as colored line at the Cposition. The C position result serves as a test control to indicatethat there is functional anti-protein antibody in the test material andshould always be present (FIGS. 12A and 12B). When sufficient amount oflabeled anti-biomarker protein antibody from the complex accumulates atC, a band becomes visible here. A band at C indicates that labeledantibody from S had moved to C. Therefore, a band at C indicates thatthe band at T is not a false positive. Arrowheads indicate the boundarylimit that a urine sample should not cross on the test strip.

FIG. 12A-12D show the possible outcomes and interpretations of theresults for such a test strip. FIG. 12A shows no band at position T buta distinct band at position C, indicating that the biomarker proteinlevel is above predetermined reference level. Acute appendicitis isindicated. FIG. 12B shows a band at position T and a distinct band atposition C, indicating that the biomarker protein level is belowpredetermined reference level. Acute appendicitis is not indicated. FIG.12C shows a band at position T but no band at position C, indicatingthat the data at T may be a false positive. FIG. 12D shows no band ateither positions T and C, indicating the data at T may be a falsenegative. Both FIGS. 12C and 12D indicate invalid data and the lateralflow immunoassay should be repeated with a new test strip.

The defined quantity of dehydrated anti-protein antibody at S positionis such that there is just enough antibody to bind the biomarker proteinfrom the sample (e.g. urine) when the biomarker protein is at thereference/control level. The reference/control level can be the level ofthe biomarker found in the samples of healthy individuals. Therefore,when the biomarker protein is at or above the reference level, all ofthe anti-biomarker antibody at the S position will be bound to thebiomarker protein in the form of biomarker protein-antibody complex;there will be no free anti-biomarker protein antibody present.

The choice of the anti-biomarker protein antibody placed at the Sposition can be any antibody that is specifically immunoreactive to anyof the proteins of interest, e.g. biomarker described herein. Theantibody can be monoclonal, polyclonal, or a mixture of both monoclonaland polyclonal antibodies. Antibody-based moiety can also be used.

When only one biomarker protein is studied, the S position should haveonly one anti-biomarker protein antibody that specificallyimmunoreactive with just that one biomarker of interest (FIG. 13). A kitcomprising test strips for use as POCT can have several single biomarkerprotein test strips. The kit can test for only one biomarker or morethen one biomarker proteins. In this embodiment, the test strip can belabeled 131 on one end to identify the biomarker protein the test stripis used for, e.g. the label “L” represents leucine α-2 glycoprotein(LRG); “M” represents mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2);and “O” represents α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM) (see FIG. 13). On theother hand, if more than one, e.g. three biomarker proteins are to bestudied simultaneously, the S position can have three different types ofanti-biomarker protein antibodies, each type specifically immunoreactiveto one biomarker protein and does not exhibit cross-reactivity with theother two non-ligand proteins (FIG. 14). Arrowheads indicate theboundary limit that sample should not cross on the membrane. Atpositions T or C, up to three bands can be visible, each bandcorresponding to each of the biomarker protein that is being tested.When three proteins are to be studied simultaneously, all three proteintypes can be represented at the T position and at their respectivequantities (FIG. 14). FIG. 14 shows an alternative design where threeproteins can be studied simultaneously on the same test strip. Thepositions of the expected results in the T and C positions for eachbiomarker are indicated 141.

The test strip can be designed in a form of a dipstick test strip (FIG.11B). As a dipstick test strip, the strip is dipped into a sample (e.g.urine) at the S position end with sample level not to exceed theboundary limit. The strip is then laid horizontally with the membranesurface facing up on a flat surface. A fixed amount of time is given forthe antibody re-hydration, capillary action, and antibody biomarkerprotein binding reaction to take place. At the end of the fixed time,there should be visible bands at the C position and depending on thelevel of the protein of interest, there may or may not be a visible bandat the T position (FIG. 12). FIG. 13 shows a method of using threeseparate dipstick test strips to test for the three biomarkers ofinterest. Each dipstick test strip is labeled 131 to indicate whichbiomarker protein is being tested. A diagnostic kit can comprisemultiple types of single biomarker test strips, a type for eachbiomarker of interest.

Example 5 Diagnostic Lateral Flow Immunoassay Test Strips-Design 2

An alternative embodiment of the lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) teststrips for determining the level of biomarker protein level isillustrated in FIG. 15A-D. This test strip can be used in point-of-caretesting. Here the test strip contains two different anti-biomarkerprotein antibodies specific for the same biomarker, each antibody bindsthe biomarker at a different epitope. This is a double sandwich LFIAtest strip. The first antibody is labeled (e.g. colored latex beads),deposited on the solid support matrix but is not immobilized on it,(i.e. the antibody is mobile), and is deposited in excess at the Sposition. The second anti-biomarker protein antibody is not labeled butis immobilized and is in excess at position T. This secondanti-biomarker protein antibody binds an epitope on the biomarker thatis not affected by the binding of the first antibody. At position C,there is an excess of non-labeled antibody against the anti-biomarkerantibody deposited at the S position. The antibody at C serves tocapture any free labeled anti-biomarker antibody migrating from S. Whensufficient free labeled anti-biomarker antibody is accumulated at C, avisible band appears. The band is a control to confirm that the band(s)observed on the test strip at T are due to the mobile antibody at the Sposition.

Initially before use, there is no visible band at position T and C ofthe test strip (FIG. 15B). When a fluid sample (e.g. urine) is place atthe S position, the water in the urine rehydrates the dehydratedanti-biomarker protein antibody that has been deposited at S. Thedehydrated anti-biomarker protein antibody can be labeled with colloidalgold beads or colored latex beads. The biomarker protein in the urinebinds to this rehydrated anti-biomarker protein antibody to form anantibody-biomarker complex. A mixture of free anti-biomarker antibodyand biomarker protein:antibody complexes is formed. The mixture migratesby capillary action towards the T and the C positions. The secondanti-biomarker antibody immobilized at T will capture all the biomarkerprotein: antibody complexes but not the free anti-biomarker proteinantibody. The localized concentration of anti-biomarker protein:antibodycomplexes that is colloidal gold or latex bead labeled will becomevisible as a colored line at the T position (FIG. 15C). Only when thebiomarker protein is at or above the reference level will sufficientlabeled antibody be captured at T to produce a visible band (FIG. 15C).When the biomarker is below the reference level, no visible band shouldappear at the T position (FIG. 15D).

At position C, free anti-biomarker antibody initially from S will bebound and captured by the immobilized antibody immunoreactive againstthe antibody coming from the S position. This will in turn result in aconcentration of a colloidal gold or latex bead labeled anti-proteinantibody accumulated at the C position and will become visible ascolored line at the C position. The C position result serves as a testcontrol to indicate that there is functional anti-protein antibody inthe test material and should always be present. A band at C indicatesthat labeled antibody from S had moved to C. Therefore, a band at Cindicates that the band at T is not a false positive or that the absenceof a band at T is a false negative.

Example 6 Diagnostic Lateral Flow Immunoassay Test Strips-Design 3

An alternative embodiment of the lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) teststrips for determining the level of biomarker protein level isillustrated in FIG. 16. This test strip can be used in point-of-caretesting. The test strip is as described in FIG. 11 having a sample (S),a test (T), and a control (C) positions, all three spatially arranged asshown in FIG. 11 and FIG. 15. For this embodiment of a test strip, thesolid support 161 can be made of plastic or other non porous material,supporting the matrix 163. In this embodiment, the S position contain anexcess amount of dehydrate anti-biomarker protein antibody (firstantibody) that can be labeled (e.g. colloidal gold or color latex bead).Similar to the embodiments in FIG. 11-14, the anti-biomarker proteinantibody at S is mobile; once the antibody is re-hydrated, the antibodymoves by capillary action towards the T and C positions.

The T position contains a second anti-biomarker protein antibody that isalso immunoreactive to the biomarker protein of interest, but to adifferent epitope on the biomarker (FIG. 16). This second antibody is inexcess and is immobilized on the matrix. This second anti-biomarkerprotein antibody binds a part of the biomarker protein that is differentfrom the part of the protein that is bound by the first anti-biomarkerprotein antibody found at the S position. In this embodiment, the secondantibody at the T position will bind and capture both free unboundbiomarker protein and biomarker protein-antibody complexes, andconcentrate them at the T position.

The C position contains a defined quantity of biomarker proteinimmobilized on the membrane (FIG. 16B). The defined quantity is thepredetermined reference value of the biomarker protein being analyzed onthe test strip. The reference/control level can be the level of thebiomarker found in the samples of healthy men. When the excess freeanti-biomarker protein antibody from the S position arrives and bind theimmobilized biomarker protein at C, gradually accumulation at C producesa concentration of labeled first antibody will become visible as acolored line at the C position (FIG. 17A, B, D).

An application of a fluid sample (e.g. urine) at the S position willre-hydrate the excess amount of anti-biomarker protein antibody there.All of the biomarker protein of interest should be bound to the excessanti-biomarker protein antibody. A fluid mixture of free biomarkerprotein antibody and biomarker protein-antibody complex is formed andwill move along the membrane by capillary action towards the T positionand then subsequently to the C position. At the T position, all of thebiomarker protein-antibody complex will be captured and immobilized bythe second anti-biomarker protein antibody. The localized concentrationof biomarker protein-antibody complexes, wherein the anti-biomarkerprotein antibody that is colloidal gold or latex bead labeled, willbecome visible as a colored line at the T position (FIG. 17A, B, D).With increasing amount of biomarker protein-antibody complexes andconcentrated at the T position, the colored line expands and developsinto a band. The greater the level of biomarker in the sample, the widerthe colored band at the T position (FIGS. 17A and B).

When excess free anti-biomarker protein antibody from the S positionarrives to the C position and bind to the immobilized reference amountof biomarker protein there, another color line become visible. Sincethere is a reference amount of immobilized biomarker protein at the Cposition, the thickness of the visible colored line at the C positiondefines the reference value of protein. By comparing the thickness ofthe color band at the T and C positions on the same test strip, one canestimate whether the biomarker protein level is below or greater thanthe reference value of the protein. When the biomarker protein level isequal or greater than the reference value, the color band at the Tposition will be equal or larger than the color band at the C positionrespectively (FIGS. 17A and B). Acute appendicitis is indicated. Whenthe biomarker protein level is below the threshold level, the color bandat the T position will be smaller or even absent than the color band atthe C position (FIGS. 17C and D). Acute appendicitis is not indicated.The C position band also serves as a test control to confirm that thereis functional anti-protein antibody at the S position and that thefunctional anti-biomarker protein antibody is derived from the Sposition (FIGS. 17E and F). FIG. 17E shows a band at position T but noband at position C, indicating that the data at T may be a falsepositive. FIG. 17F shows no band at either positions T and C, indicatingthe data at T may be a false negative. Both FIGS. 17E and 17F indicateinvalid data and that the lateral flow immunoassay should be repeatedwith a new test strip.

When only one biomarker protein is studied, the S position should haveonly one anti-biomarker protein antibody that specificallyimmunoreactive with just that one biomarker of interest. A kitcomprising test strips for use as POCT can have several single biomarkerprotein test strips. The kit can test for only one biomarker or morethen one biomarker proteins. In this embodiment, the test strip can belabeled 181 on one end to identify the biomarker protein the test stripis used for, e.g. the label “L” represents leucine α-2 glycoprotein(LRG); “M” represents mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2);“O” represents α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (ORM) and “S” representsα-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3) (see FIG. 18). On the other hand, ifmore than one, e.g. three biomarker proteins are to be studiedsimultaneously, the S position can have three different types ofanti-biomarker protein antibodies, each type specifically immunoreactiveto one biomarker protein and does not exhibit cross-reactivity with theother two non-ligand proteins (FIG. 19). FIG. 19 shows an alternativeembodiment of a test strip where three biomarker proteins can be studiedsimultaneously on the same test strip. The positions for each biomarkeron the single strip are indicated 191.

The test strip can be designed in a form of a dipstick test strip (FIG.16B). As a dipstick test strip, the strip is dipped into a sample (e.g.urine) at the S position end with sample level not to exceed theboundary limit. The strip is then laid horizontally with the membranesurface facing up on a flat surface. A fixed amount of time is given forthe antibody re-hydration, capillary action, and antibody biomarkerprotein binding reaction to take place. At the end of the fixed time,there should be visible bands at the C position and depending on thelevels of the biomarker protein(s) of interest, there may or may not bea visible band at the T position (FIGS. 18 and 19) and the bands can bea different thickness. FIG. 18 shows a method of using four separatedipstick test strips to test for the four biomarkers of interest. Suchtest strip can be the component of a diagnostic kit. Each dipstick teststrip is labeled 181 to indicate which biomarker protein is beingtested. A diagnostic kit can comprise multiple types of single biomarkertest strips, a type for each biomarker of interest.

What is claimed:
 1. A device comprising: a. at least one protein-bindingagent which specifically binds to at least one appendicitis biomarkerprotein selected from the group of: leucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG),mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2), α-1-acid glycoprotein 1(ORM); and b. at least one solid support for the at least one proteinbinding-agent in (a), wherein the protein-binding agent is deposited onthe solid support.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least oneprotein-binding agent deposited on the solid support specifically bindsto the appendicitis biomarker polypeptide of the leucine α-2glycoprotein (LRG) of SEQ ID NO:
 1. 3. The device of claim 1, whereinthe at least one protein-binding agent deposited on the solid supportspecifically binds to the appendicitis biomarker polypeptide of α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM) of SEQ ID NO:
 3. 4. The device of claim 1, whereinthe at least one protein-binding agent deposited on the solid supportspecifically binds to the appendicitis biomarker polypeptide ofmannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2) of SEQ ID NO:
 5. 5. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein the device further comprises at least oneadditional different protein-binding agent deposited on the solidsupport, wherein the additional protein-binding agent specifically bindsto an appendicitis biomarker protein selected from the group consistingof: leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG); S100-A8 (calgranulin); α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM); plasminogen (PLG); mannan-binding lectin serineprotease 2 (MASP2); zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1); apolipoprotein D(ApoD); α-1-antichymotrypsin (SERPINA3).
 6. The device of claim 1,wherein the device further comprises at least one additional differentprotein-binding agent deposited on the solid support, wherein theadditional protein-binding agent specifically binds to an appendicitisbiomarker protein selected from the group consisting of: adipocytespecific adhesion molecule; AMBP; amyloid-like protein 2; angiotensinconverting enzyme 2; BAZ1B; carbonic anhydrase 1; CD14; chromogranin A;FBLN7; FXR2; hemoglobin α; hemoglobin β; interleukin-1 receptorantagonist protein; inter-α-trypsin inhibitor; lipopolysaccharidebinding protein; lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan acid receptor1; MLKL; nicastrin; novel protein (Accession No: IPI00550644); PDZK1interacting protein 1; PRIC285; prostaglandin-H2 D-isomerase; Rcl;S100-A9; serum amyloid A protein; SLC13A3; SLC2A1; SLC2A2; SLC4A1;SLC9A3; SORBS1; SPRX2; supervillin; TGFbeta2R; TTYH3; VA0D1; vascularadhesion molecule 1; versican; VIP36; α-1-acid glycoprotein 2; andβ-1,3-galactosyltransferase.
 7. The device of claim 1, wherein the solidsupport is in the format of a dipstick, a microfluidic chip or acartridge.
 8. The device of claim 1, wherein the protein-binding agentis an antibody, antibody fragment, aptamer, small molecule or variantthereof.
 9. The device of claim 1, wherein the protein-binding agentdeposited on the device specifically binds to the appendicitis biomarkerprotein when the level of the appendicitis biomarker protein is at least2-fold above a reference level for that biomarker protein.
 10. A deviceof claim 9, wherein the reference level is an average level of theappendicitis biomarker protein in a plurality of urine samples from apopulation of healthy humans not having acute appendicitis.
 11. A kitcomprising: (a) a device according to claim 1; and (b) a first agent,wherein the first agent produces a detectable signal in the presence ofa protein-binding agent which deposited on the device is specificallybound to a appendicitis biomarker protein.
 12. The kit of claim 11,further comprising a second agent, wherein the second agent produces adifferent detectable signal in the presence of a second protein-bindingagent deposited on the device which is specifically bound to a secondbiomarker protein.
 13. A method to identify the likelihood of a subjecthaving acute appendicitis comprising: a. measuring the level of at leastone biomarker protein selected from the group listed in Table 1 in aurine sample from the human subject; b. comparing the level of the atleast one biomarker protein measured in step (a) to a reference levelfor the measured biomarker; wherein the level of a measured biomarker isat least 2-fold increased than the reference level for the biomarkerindicates that the subject is likely to have acute appendicitis.
 14. Themethod of claim 13, further comprising determining the level of albuminin the urine sample from the human subject.
 15. The method of claim 13,wherein the human exhibits at least one symptom of acute appendicitis.16. The method of claim 13, wherein the measuring is completed with theuse of an immunoassay or an automated immunoassay.
 17. The method ofclaim 13, wherein the biomarker is leucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG). 18.The method of claim 13, wherein the biomarker is α-1-acid glycoprotein 1(ORM).
 19. The method of claim 13, wherein the biomarker ismannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2)
 20. The method of claim13, wherein the biomarker protein is selected from a group consisting ofleucine α-2 glycoprotein (LRG), calgranulin A (S100-A8), α-1-acidglycoprotein 1 (ORM), plasminogen (PLG), mannan-binding lectin serineprotease 2 (MASP2), Zinc-α-2-glycoprotein (AZGP1), α-1-antichymotrypsin(SERPINA3) and apolipoprotein D (ApoD).